33, 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

a^5..V..^)yright No. 



Shelf. 



AsRb 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




tTtje Cbn|iel of '^jettrjj VIL, ©testmtnster g-bbey. 



•: Assembly of Divines met for the first time in tbis Chapel on 
July, 10 13, after the Prolocutor, Dr. W. TWISSE, had preached 



Tim: 

the 1st 

to a great crowd including the members of Assembly and of Parlia- 
ment. Their first work was to revise the XXXIX Articles. When 
winter came on the Assembly removed to Jerusalem Chamber, 
where they continued to the close. 



ADDRESSES 

AT THE • 

CELEBRATION OF THE 

Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary 

OF THE 

WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

BY THE 

General Assembly 

y OF THE 

Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. 



EDITED BY THE 

REV. W#k HENRY ROBERTS, D. D., LL.D. 

7 " 



4* 



PHILADELPHIA 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION AND 

SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK 

1898 

H 




0* 



J20U96 



Copyright, 1898, by The Trustees of 

The Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath- 
School Work. 

""/£) COPIES RECEIVE 



1 






INTEODUCTION. 



This volume contains the addresses delivered at 
the celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth 
Anniversary of the Work of the Westminster Assem- 
bly of Divines, held under the auspices of the Gen- 
eral Assembly, during its sessions at Winona Lake, 
Indiana, May, 1898. The proposal to observe this 
Anniversary was made to the General Assembly of 
1897, by an overture from the Presbytery of Balti- 
more. This overture was referred to a special Com- 
mittee of seven, four ministers and three elders, to 
report to the sitting Assembly. The members of the 
Committee were: Chairman, Hon. James A. Mount, 
Governor of Indiana, with ministers I. W. Kendall, 
D. D., G. L. Spining, D. D., W. H. Roberts, D. D., 
and ruling elders Gen. E. C. Mason and W. H. H. 
Smith, Esq. The Committee presented the following 
report to the General Assembly which was unani- 
mously adopted : 

" The Special Committee appointed by this Assembly 
to report upon the observance of the Two Hundred and 
Fiftieth Anniversary of the Adoption of the Westminster 
Standards would respectfully report as follows : 

" The history of the adoption of the Westminster 

3 



4 INTRODUCTION. * 

Standards concisely stated is as follows : The Confession 
of Faith was reported to the English Parliament Decem- 
ber 4, 1646, was returned with the proof-texts to Parlia- 
ment on April 29, 1647, and adopted June 3, 1648. The 
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland adopted 
the Confession August 27, 1647, and it was approved by 
the Parliament of the kingdom of Scotland, February 7, 
1649. The Larger and Shorter Catechisms were reported 
by the Westminster Assembly to the English Parliament 
October, 1647, and were adopted September 15, 1648. 
The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland adopted 
both Catechisms July 20, 1648, and the Parliament of 
the kingdom of Scotland February 7, 1649. In view of 
the varying dates of adoption, and of the fact that 
Church and State in both England and Scotland were 
united at the time of the formulation of the Westminster 
Standards, it is believed that the year 1898 is the most 
appropriate }'ear for the observance of the Anniversar}'. 
The Committee therefore recommend the adoption of 
the following resolutions: 

" 1. That the General Assembly observe the Two 
Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Adoption of 
the Westminster Standards on the second Thursday of 
the sessions of the General Assembly of 1898, and that 
a Committee of nine, of which the officers of the Assem- 
bly shall be members, and of which the Moderator shall 
be the Chairman, shall be appointed by the Moderator, 
to make due preparations for the observance of this 
great historical event. 

" 2. That this Assembly recommends to the Synods, 
Presbyteries, and Churches under its care, to observe at 
such times as may be convenient to them, during the 
year 1898, the anniversary of the adoption of these great 
Standards of faith and practice, which have been so in- 
estimable a blessing alike to the Churches and to the 
world. 

" In behalf of the Committee, 

" James A. Mount, Chairman." 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

By virtue of the provisions of the above report, the 
Committee on the celebration of the Two Hundred 
and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Adoption of the 
Westminster Standards was appointed as follows : 
Ministers, Sheldon Jackson, D. D., LL. D., William 
H. Roberts, D. D., LL. D., William E. Moore, D. D., 
LL. D., S. W. Dana, D. D., and Edward H. Robbins; 
with Ruling Elders, George Junkin, LL.D., William 
C. Gray, LL. D., Hon. Stanton J. Peelle, and Hon. 
Darwin R. James. This Committee proceeded to the 
discharge of the duty laid upon it by the selection of 
a list of topics and speakers, and by the appointment 
of the Chairman, Dr. Sheldon Jackson, and the Sec- 
retary, Dr. Wm. Henry Roberts, as an Executive 
Committee. 

The Celebration was observed, as appointed, on 
Thursday, May 26, 1898. Sessions were held morning, 
afternoon, and evening. The full order of exercises 
was as follows: 

PEOGEAMME OF THE WESTMINSTEE CELEBEATION. 
9 O'CLOCK A. M. 

The Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D. D., LL. D., presiding. 

1. Invocation — The Chairman. 

2. The One Hundredth Psalm — Rev. Joseph B. 

Turner, Dover, Del. 

" All people that on earth do dwell." 

3. Reading of the Scriptures — Rev. Samuel S. Gilson, 

D. D., Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Isaiah, Chap. lxi. 



G INTRODUCTION. 

4. Prayer — Rev. John Hemphill, D. D., San Francisco. 

Cal. 

5. Reading of Letter from Dean Bradley, of West- 

minster. 

6. Psalm XXIII.— Rev. David W. Pahs, D. D., Inde- 

pendence, Iowa. 

"The Lord's my Shepherd, I'll not want." 

7. Presentation — Dr. W. C. Gray, Chicago, 111. 

Portrait of Alexander Henderson. 

8. Address- Rev. Wm. H. Roberts, D. D., LL. D., Phil- 

adelphia, Pa. 

" Alexander Henderson." 

9. Address — Rev. Samuel J. Niccolls, D. D., LL. D., St. 

Louis, Mo. 
" The Civil and Religious Conditions of the Times of the 
Westminster Assembly." 

10. Psalm XLVL— Rev. William Bryant, Mount Clem- 

ens, Mich. 

" God is our refuge and our strength." 

11. Address — Rev. George Norcross, D. D., Carlisle, Pa. 

" The Story of the Westminster Assembly." 

12. Address— Rev. J. D. Moffat, D. D., LL. D., Washing- 

ton, Pa. 
" Fundamental Doctrines of the Westminster Confession 
and Catechisms." 

13. Psalm CXXXIIL— Rev. Samuel Dunham, Bing- 

hampton, N. Y. 

" Behold how good a thing it is." 

14. Prayer and Benediction — Rev. Chas. A. Stoddard, 

D. D., New York, N. Y. 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

2.15 O'CLOCK P. M. 

Rev. Wm. E. Moore, D. D., LL. D., Columbus, Ohio, 
presiding. 

1. Invocation — The Chairman. 

2. Hymn 159 [Hymnal]— Rev. J. E. Chapin, D. D., 

Neenah, Wis. 
" O, could I speak the matchless worth." 

3. Reading of the Scriptures — Rev. Wm. S. Holt, 

D. D., Portland, Ore. 

Hebrews, Chap. i. 1-12. 

4. Prayer — Rev. John Dixon, D. D., Trenton, N. J. 

5. Address — Rev. Robert F. Coyle, D. D., Oakland, 

Cal. 
"The Westminster Polity and Worship." 

6. Address— Rev. Wallace Radcliffe, D. D., Moderator, 

Washington, D. C. 
" The Men and Work of the Westminster Assembly." 

7. Hymn 662 [Hymnal]— Rev. W. A. Hunter, D. D., 

Bloomington, 111. 

" O God, beneath Thy guiding hand." 

8. Address — Rev. Benjamin L. Agnew, D. D., Philadel- 

phia, Pa. 
" The American Presbyterian Churches and the Adopt- 
ing Acts." 

9. Address — Gen. James A. Beaver, Bellefonte, Pa. 

" The Presbyterian Churches and the People." 

10. Hymn 665 [Hymnal] — Rev. William A. Major, 

Seattle, Wash. 

" My country, 'tis of thee." 

11. Prayer and Benediction — Rev. James T. Lapsley, 

D. D., Danville, Ky. 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

7.15 O'CLOCK P. M. 
Gov. James A. Mount, Indianapolis, Ind., presiding. 

1. Invocation — The Chairman. 

2. Hymn 347 [Hymnal] — Rev. John A. Silsby, China. 

" Stand up, stand up for Jesus." 

3. Reading of the Scriptures — Rev. George Carson, 

Charlotte, N. C. 

Revelation, Chap. xxii. 1-17. 

4. Prayer — Rev. Joseph S. Malone, Meadville, Pa. 

5. Address — Gen. John Eaton, Washington, D. C. 

" The Presbyterian Churches and Education." 

6. Address— Rev. N. D. Hillis, D. D., Chicago, 111. 

" Presbyterianism and its Influence upon Society 
through its Emphasis upon Childhood and 
Youth." 

7. Hymn 667 [Hymnal]— Rev. Theodore Bracken, Em- 

poria, Kan. 

" God of our fathers, whose almighty hand." 

8. Address — Rev. George L. Spining, D. D., Orange, 

N.J. 
" The Presbyterian Churches and Home Missions." 

9. Address — Mr. Robert E. Speer, Secretary Board of 

Foreign Missions, New York. 
"The Presbyterian Churches and Foreign Missions." 

10. Hymn 390 [Hymnal]— Rev. J. C. R. Ewing, D. D., 

India. 

" Jesus shall reign where'er the sun." 

11. Prayer and Benediction — Rev. Joseph G. Reaser, 

D. D., Webb City, Mo. 

In connection with the Celebration a gavel was 
used, which was made of Westminster Abbey oak. 
The gavel block consisted of a section of a small 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

pillar of Purbeck marble removed from Westminster 
Abbey during repairs, and was set in American oak. 
The Westminster specimens were obtained from Dean 
Bradley, of Westminster Abbey, through the kindness 
of William Caruthers, LL. D., of London, England, 
and at the request of the Rev. Henry C. McCook, 
D. D., Sc. D., pastor of the Tabernacle Presbyterian 
Church, Philadelphia, Pa. Dr. McCook had the 
gavel made and the marble mounted. The pro- 
gramme had upon it engravings representing the 
Seal for the Approbation of Ministers of the West- 
minster Assembly; the Chapel of Henry VII. and 
the Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster Abbey; the 
Seal of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church in the U. S. A. ; the likenesses of Dr. William 
Twisse, prolocutor of the Westminster Assembly, 
Alexander Henderson, author of the Solemn League 
and Covenant, and Francis Rous, author of Rous's 
Version of the Psalms. The Psalms and " Tones " 
used at the morning session were taken from Living- 
stone's Psalter of 1635, and were arranged for use by 
Mr. Henry C. Wilt, the organist of the Tabernacle 
Church, Philadelphia. The letter of Dean Bradley, 
above referred to, is as follows : 

" Deanery, Westminster Abbey, 

" May 5, 1898. 
" The Rev. Henry C. McCook, D. D. 

" My Dear Sir : At the request of Mr. Caruthers, 
F. R. S., late keeper of the Botanical Department of 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

the British Museum, I have placed at your disposal, 
for the use of the Moderator of the General Assembly 
of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of 
America, a piece of oak and a fragment of Purbeck 
marble. 

" Each of these formed part of the fabric of the 
church of the Abbey of Westminster, which was 
erected by King Henry III. in the thirteenth century, 
and which took the place of that built by King 
Edward the Confessor, who was buried there within 
less than a year of the Norman Conquest. 

" It was within this church that, during the tempo- 
rary suppression of the Episcopal Church of England, 
there was held on June 1, 1643, a solemn service, 
attended by the Assembly appointed by Parliament, 
' to establish a new platform of worship and discipline 
for this nation for all time to come.' The preacher 
was Dr. Twisse of Newbury, the Prolocutor of that 
Assembly. 

" The Assembly met for some time in the chapel 
called that of Henry VIL, the king who erected it in 
the place of the older ' Lady Chapel,' and where lie 
side by side his own remains and those of his Yorkist 
queen and of James L, the first of our Stuart sover- 
eigns. 

" As the autumn came on, they adjourned to the 
Jerusalem Chamber, built by Abbot Litlington in 
the reign of King Richard II. as an adjunct or with- 
drawing room to the Abbott's Refectory or dining- 



INTB OD UCTION. 1 1 

hall, built shortly before by the same Abbot, and 
warmed by what was then a rare luxury, a ' sea-coal 
fire-place.' 

" Here the Assembly continued their meetings for 
between five and six years, and here, as I need hardly 
remind you, were framed ' the important documents,' 
The Westminster Confession and the Larger and 
Shorter Catechisms. 

" I need hardly say that I have gladly placed at 
your disposal these two small fragments of English 
oak and English marble, which once formed part of 
this historic church, in which all who share our race 
and speak our language, not least of all, as I have 
reason to know, our kinsmen and fellow Christians 
of the United States, feel so keen an interest. 
" Believe me to be, 

" Very truly yours, 
" C. G. Bradley, 

" Dean of Westminster" 

The Celebration was highly successful, the audiences 
at all the sessions filling the large and well-appointed 
auditorium at Winona Lake to its full capacity. The 
character of the addresses, the reception accorded 
them, as well as the names of the speakers, is cumu- 
lative proof of the undivided loyalty of the Church 
to its standards of faith and practice. After the Cele- 
bration, the Assembly adopted the following report 
of the Committee on the Anniversary : 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

" The Committee on the Two Hundred and Fiftieth 
Anniversary of the Adoption of the Westminster Stand- 
ards respectfully presents a Report to the Assembly, 
recommending the passage of the following resolutions : 

" Resolved, 1. That the thanks of the Assembly are 
hereby cordially extended to the speakers at the Celebra- 
tion, and especially for their admirable presentation of 
the great subjects dealt with by them on the occasion. 

" Resolved, 2. That the thanks of the Assembly be ex- 
tended to the Rev. Henry C. McCook, D. D., Sc. D., of 
Philadelphia, for his admirable collection of Westmin- 
steriana, placed at the disposal of the Assembly in the 
Westminster Exhibit. 

" Resolved, 3. That the thanks of the Assembly be ex- 
tended to the ' Winona Assembly and Summer School ' 
for the use of the building in which the Westminster 
Exhibit was placed on public view. 

" Resolved, 4. That the thanks of the Assembly are 
hereby tendered to Dr. F. L. Marshall, musical director, 
to Miss Marshall, to the choir of the First Presbvterian 
Church of Ft. Wayne, Ind., and to Mr. E. F. Yarnell 
and daughter for their highly appreciated musical ser- 
vices in connection with the Celebration. 

" Resolved, 5. That the Stated Clerk of the Assembly 
be authorized to pay all the expenses connected with 
the Westminster Celebration, including a sum not ex- 
ceeding $100 for the expenses of the Westminster Ex- 
hibit, and that the Chairman of the Committee, with 
the Stated Clerk, be the Committee of Audit. 

" Resolved, 6. That the speeches delivered at the Cele- 
bration, together with the historical sermon, be published 
in a volume with an appropriate preface, under the 
editorship of the Secretary of the Committee, the Rev. 
William H. Roberts, D. D., the volume to be published 
by and at the expense of the Board of Publication and 
Sabbath -school Work. 

" Resolved, 7. That the portrait of Alexander Hender- 
son, presented to the Assembly by Dr. W. C. Gray and 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

others, be accepted with cordial thanks, and that it be 
deposited for the present with the Presbyterian Histori- 
cal Society. 

" Respectfully submitted, 

"Sheldon Jackson, Chairman." 

The Assembly also adopted the following resolution 
of* thanks : 

lt Resolved, That the thanks of the General Assembly 
be extended to the Committee on the Westminster Cele- 
bration for their efficient and admirable services." 



It is proper here to refer to the excellent and in- 
structive collection of historical mementoes of Pres- 
byterian leaders, churches, institutions, and agencies, 
which was brought together in one of the buildings 
at Winona Lake, Ind., by a Committee, of which the 
Rev. R. V. Hunter, D. D., was chairman. The admir- 
able collection of Westminsteriana, belonging to the 
Rev. H. C. McCook, D. D., Sc. D., was a part of this 
Exhibit. The thanks of the Assembly were tendered 
both to Dr. Hunter and Dr. McCook, and also to the 
Synods, Presbyteries, etc., that co-operated in the 
Exhibit. 

In addition to the addresses delivered at the West- 
minster Celebration, the Assembly directed that the 
opening sermon delivered by the retiring Moderator, 
Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D. D., should be made a part 
of the volume. Further, at the request of all the 
Commissioners present at Winona Lake, Ind., on Sun- 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

day, May 29, the discourse delivered by the editor of 
this volume, on " The Westminster Standards and the 
Formation of the American Republic," has been in- 
cluded. 

Persons desiring historical information, in addition 
to that given in this volume, concerning the West- 
minster Assembly of Divines, are referred to Mitchell's 
Westminster Assembly : its History and Standards, the 
most readable and popular book yet published on 
the subject. This work has been issued in an ad- 
mirable form by the Presbyterian Board of Publica- 
tion and S. S. Work, whose cordial cooperation in the 
publication of these Anniversary Addresses is heartily 
acknowledged. Those who desire a detailed account 
of the Westminster Assembly's proceedings should 
consult the Minutes of the Sessions of the Westminster 
Assembly of Divines, edited by Mitchell and Struthers; 
Lightfoot's Journal of the Proceedings of the Assembly 
of Divines; Gillespie's Notes of the Debates and Pro- 
ceedings of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster ; and 
Baillie's Letters and Journals. 

Wm. Henry Roberts. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

I. Introduction 3 

By the Editok. 

II. Opening Sermon 17 

By the Bev. Sheldon Jackson, D. D., LL. D. 

III. Presentation of Portrait of Alex- 

ander Henderson 37 

By Wm. C. Gray, LL. D. 

IV. Alexander Henderson 43 

By the Eev. Wm. Henry Eoberts, D. D., LL. D. 

V. The Civil and Religious Conditions 
of the Times of the Westminster 

Assembly 57 

By the Rev. Samuel J. Niccolls, D. D., LL. D. 

VI. The Story of the Westminster As- 
sembly 79 

By the Eev. Geo. Norcross, D. D. 

VII. The Fundamental Doctrines of the 
Westminster Confession and Cate- 
chisms 109 

By the Eev. James D. Moffat, D. D., LL. D. 

VIII. The Westminster Polity and Wor- 
ship 129 

By the Eev. Eobert F. Coyle, D. D. 

15 



16 CONTENTS. 

IX. The Westminster Assembly, the Men 

AND THEIR WORK . 147 

By the Eev. Wallace Eadcliffe, D. D. 

X. The American Presbyterian Church 

and the Adopting Acts 163 

By the Rev. Benjamin L. Agnew, D. D. 

XI. The Presbyterian Churches and the 

People 191 

By Gen. James A. Beaver, LL.D. 

XII. The Presbyterian Churches and Edu- 
cation 211 

By Gen. John Eaton, LL.D. 

XIII. Presbyterianism and its Influence 

upon Society through its Emphasis 

upon Childhood and Youth 249 

By the Eev. Newell D. Hillis, D. D. 

XIV. The Presbyterian Churches and Home 

Missions 269 

By the Eev. George L. Spining, D. D. 

XV. The Presbyterian Churches and For- 
eign Missions 297 

By Mr. Eobert E. Speer. 
XVI. The Westminster Standards and the 

Formation of the American Repub- 
lic 323 

By the Eev. Wm. Henry Eoberts, D. D., LL. D. 



THE SERMON AT THE OPENING OF 
THE ASSEMBLY. 

BY THE 

Eev. SHELDON JACKSON, D. D., LL. D., 

Moderator. 



THE SERMON AT THE OPENING OF THE 
ASSEMBLY. 

BY THE 

Kev. SHELDON JACKSON, D. D., LL. D., 

Moderator. 



" Begin to possess, that thou niayest inherit his land." — Deut. 
2:31. 

It is not without significance that America should 
have remained hidden from the civilized world until 
the close of the 15th century. For ages history had 
recorded in brick and stone, on papyrus and parch- 
ment, the rise and growth, the decay and fall of na- 
tions in Asia, Africa, and Europe ; but the story of 
America remained a blank ; its very existence un- 
known. 

The Church of God which in patriarchal days was 
established in the family of Abraham, and during 
the Old Testament dispensation was confined to his 
seed, with the coming of Christ was thrown open to 
" every kindred and tongue and people and nation." 
At first creeping along the shore of the Mediterranean 
to Rome, it spread over all Europe. But everywhere 
it was complicated with and trammeled by the State, 
and occasionally used by the State for the oppression 

19 



20 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

of the people. Even the great Reformation of the 
16th century was more or less political in its aims 
and methods. Heathen or Christian, there had 
always been in the religions of the world a connec- 
tion between Church and State. The custom of ages 
had so intrenched itself in men's minds that it did 
not occur to them there could be a better way. And 
yet while this connection existed it was impossible 
for the Church to secure an environment suitable to 
its highest development; an environment that would 
give it the widest freedom and make possible a " free 
Church in a free State." To secure this it was neces- 
sary to get out from under the influence of the past ; 
to find a new land, where ancient customs were not- 
intrenched ; where entangling alliances with the State 
could be thrown off — a new land, where the Church 
could go back to the Spirit of Christ and start anew 
in the conquest of the world. Such a land had God 
reserved for such a time. He had also prepared a 
Church to take possession of it. 

Even before the Reformation God was preparing 
the way for it. The new learning passed over Europe 
like the breath of God. The discovery of printing had 
so multiplied Bibles, that increasing numbers could 
have and study the Word of God in their own homes. 
This developed intelligent and independent thinkers. 
Then came the Reformation (1517) to quicken the 
seed, warm the heart, and convert the soul ; to pre- 
pare a special people for a new land and a new de- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 21 

parture in Church life. Then as persecutions arose 
that the early Church might be scattered abroad 
preaching the Word, so there arose the persecutions 
of Charles IX. and Louis XIV. in France, Philip II. 
and his cruel agent the Duke of Alva in Holland, 
Henry VIII. and bloody Mary in England, and later 
Charles I. and Archbishop Laud in England, Scotland, 
and Ireland, to prepare and make ready the people 
whom God had chosen to abandon home and country 
and journey to anew land, where they could worship 
God with none to molest or make them afraid. Con- 
temporaneous with these movements was the dis- 
covery of Columbus. There beyond the " pillars of 
Hercules," beyond the " Ultima Thule " of history, 
beyond even the " Fortunate Islands " of antiquity, 
across the unknown waters, stood the land which God 
had hidden for ages, waiting for the fulness of time 
when a people should be especially prepared to 
occupy it. 

CHRISTIAN FOUNDATIONS. 

Then was born a nation in righteousness. The 
nations of Europe and Asia ; the nations of antiquity 
(except Israel), were born in war and conquest, in 
blood and ambition ; but these United States were 
founded by those who sought first and foremost 
a land where they could worship God untrammeled 
by kings and governments. They came not for con- 
quest, but for civil and religious liberty. As the first 



22 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

official act of Columbus was the erection of the cross 
of Christ upon the new world, so the first voices 
heard by the native races on the shores of America 
were those of prayer and praise. 

" And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang 
With the anthems of the free." 

It is of interest to note in this connection that the 
first Protestant worship on the shores of America 
was by the French Presbyterians, the Huguenots, in 
1562, fifty-eight years before the landing of the May- 
flower at Plymouth Pock. Many and divers were the 
nationalities that sought homes in this new land. 
But those who principally moulded and shaped affairs 
— the pilgrims of destiny and builders of empire, 
who laid foundations broad and deep for Christ and 
His Church, foundations which would support the 
temple of freedom, and through all coming time 
bless the generations — the men above all others, in 
that epoch-making age, who, gathering up the lessons 
of the past, worked out plans, and laid enduring 
foundations for civil and religious liberty, were the 
Scotch, the Hollanders, the Huguenots, and the Puri- 
tans. 

At the breaking out of the Revolutionary War the 
Scotch and Scotch -Irish were the most numerous race 
in the colonies, numbering about 900,000, or nearly 
one-third of the entire population, while the Puritans 
numbered 600,000, and the Cavaliers, 400,000. It is 
estimated there were 60,000 of them in New England 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 23 

alone; and at the time they were the dominant in- 
fluence in the United States. 

For centuries in Scotland and Ireland they had stood 
as firm as their eternal hills against kingcraft and 
priestcraft ; against absolutism in State and Church. 
They endured the rack and thumbscrew in the old 
castle at Edinburgh ; they were hunted like wild beasts 
on their mountains ; mutilated and branded in their 
persons, butchered, drowned and burned at the stake ; 
but in this fiery furnace of affliction they were learn- 
ing lessons in political economy that gave Great 
Britain the habeas corpus act, a free parliament, 
and constitutional liberty. They were in training to 
found a free republic. And when the time came to 
establish the foundation of that republic with the 
sword, no wonder that twelve of the twenty-four 
major-generals of the American army, and one-half 
of the troops should have been Scotch and Scotch- 
Irish. 

True yoke-fellows with them were the Hollanders, 
whose sturdy faith had been wrought out and man- 
hood developed during those desperate years when 
they stood as a wall between Protestantism and its 
overthrow. A race who could conquer the sea and 
successfully withstand the onslaught of a united 
papal Europe, was surely good material for the 
foundation stones in free America. 

Then there were the Huguenots, refined and purified 
and made meet for their high calling, to help in 



24 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

laving the foundations of the Church in this goodly 
land. By their baptism of suffering, in those days 
when the streets of Paris ran red with the blood of 
her best citizens, they had been made the apostles of 
God to other lands. The Huguenots who came to 
America were the flower of France, from the loss of 
whom she did not recover for a century. And brothers 
with the Huguenots and Hollanders and Scotch were 
the Puritans, who, driven from their homes by the 
persecutions of Henry VIII., Queen Mary, and the 
Stuarts, had sought and found shelter in Holland, 
Germany and Switzerland, where they sat at the feet of 
the ablest scholars and most advanced thinkers of 
their age. There they learned those lessons and 
received that special training which prepared them 
for their great mission in America. 

Thus God sifted out of the three kingdoms of Great 
Britain, and out of Holland and France, the choicest 
materials for the new republic on the shores of Amer- 
ica ; and through them brought into American life 
and character the best and highest results of the past. 

It is also worthy of note that of these four promi- 
nent factors in our early American history, three — the 
Hollanders, Huguenots and Scotch and Scotch-Irish 
— were Presbyterians. The fourth, the Pilgrim 
Fathers, held in common with Presbyterians the 
Calvinistic creed, and many of their churches had 
ruling elders over them, of whom elder Brewster 
is an illustrious example. These and kindred spirits 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 25 

from other lands, only in smaller numbers, were 
those whom God in his providence had called out 
from the ripest civilizations of Europe ; men of 
the highest ability, learning, character and relig- 
ious consecration. And to whatever causes the his- 
torian or philosopher may ascribe the wonderful 
migration at an early date of Christian people to 
America, we must see in it over and above all, the hand 
of God. It was his almighty hand that brought to 
this land the brave old Hollanders, the Scotch Pres- 
byterians, the English Dissenters, the Irish Calvinists, 
the quiet Quakers, the glorious Huguenots, the hymn- 
loving Lutherans — the chosen ones of God called out 
from all lands to take possession of and develop this 
land for Christ. As the angels looked down on that 
historic age they heard 

" The tread of pioneers 
Of nations yet to be — 
The first low wash of waves 

Where soon shall roll a human sea." 

Gaining a foothold upon the Atlantic seaboard, 
they gradually extended their settlements into the 
interior, and as they advanced the wild forests, and 
still wilder beasts and men, gave way before them. 
They overflowed into central and western New 
York and the Western Reserve : over the Alleghenies 
into the fertile valley of the Ohio ; across the Blue 
Ridge into Tennessee and Kentuck}^ ; across the prai- 
ries of Indiana and Illinois into Michigan and Wis- 



20 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

consin ; and wherever they went the log church and 
the log school-house were erected among the rude 
log homes of the settlers. 

As the churches become strengthened, God, by 
means of the Louisiana purchase (1803), took that 
mighty empire extending from the Gulf of Mexico, 
diagonally across the continent two thousand miles 
to Puget Sound, out from under French Romanism, 
and called upon this Church to " enter and possess." 
Hitherto emigration had been homogeneous ; a 
number of families going from one section to an- 
other, and taking with them their minister and 
schoolmaster. But with the doubling of our area 
at one bound the Church felt that former methods 
were inadequate for such an emergency. In antici- 
pation of this increase of territory the General 
Assembly of 1802 created a Standing Committee 
of Missions, which in 1816 was made The Board of 
Missions. 

Scarce had the Church time to grasp the magnitude 
of the added work before the annexation of Texas 
and the close of the Mexican War, took out from the 
blighting influence of Spanish Catholicism and gave 
to Protestant control, a region over 45,000 square 
miles larger than the thirteen States. Once securely 
under the American flag the marvelous stores of gold 
and silver in California, Nevada, Utah, Montana, and 
Colorado were uncovered to an astonished world. 
Then in 1867 Alaska, whose western limit places 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 27 

San Francisco east of the center of the United States, 
was taken from the control of Greek Catholicism and 
laid upon the American Church, and lo ! our " Ice- 
berg" astonishes the world by the extent and rich- 
ness of its gold deposits, and to-day representatives 
from many lands are flocking into Alaska by the 
tens of thousands. 

This is the continent that God had reserved for his 
Church. A land magnificent in its extent and re- 
sources, and in its wide range of climate and produc- 
tions ; with skies as brilliant as those of Italy ; winter 
resorts the peer of Cannes, the Riviera and Mentone ; 
waters as healing as those of Carlsbad and Baden- 
Baden ; air as health-giving as Algiers and Egypt ; 
plains as productive of breadstuffs as the valley of 
the Nile and the land of Goshen in their palmiest 
days ; mines as rich as ancient Golconda and Ophir ; a 
land whose possibilities are so great that the wild- 
est visionary has not begun to comprehend the out- 
come. 

" A glorious land, 

With broad arms stretched from shore to shore ; 
The proud Pacific chafes her strand ; 
She hears the loud Atlantic's roar." 

And this is the land that God has given his 
Church to possess— to take and to hold as a base of 
operations for the conquest of the world. Hear his 
voice saying to the American Churches : " I give you 
from ocean to ocean, from tropical gulf to frozen 



28 WEST3ITNSTER ASSEMBLY 

north. ' Begin to possess, that thou mayest inherit 
his land.' " How goodly for situation, throned in the 
midst of the ocean ! Not " a city," but " a conti- 
nent " " set on a hill." From its heights the Church 
of the United States sends out its beacon light east- 
ward to the sacerdotalism and formalism of Europe 
and the heathenism of Africa, westward to the dead 
conservatism of Asia, and southward to the benighted 
millions of the " neglected church." Was there ever 
a better base of operations? Was there ever a 
stronger leverage for uplifting the race? Was there 
ever a grander theater for action? And on this 
vantage ground God has placed the American Chris- 
tian, the resultant combination of English tenacity, 
Scotch shrewdness, German steadiness, Irish vivacity, 
Welsh frankness, Dutch sturdiness, Huguenot ser- 
iousness, and Scandinavian thrift — the very best and 
highest type of character — a character that, brought 
under the sway of powerful religious motives, " full 
of faith and the Holy Ghost," becomes invincible in 
the conversion of the world. 

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

From the consideration of the American Churches 
in general let us turn our attention to our own 
denomination. While we recognize and admire the 
dash of the Methodists, the zeal of the Baptists, 
the energy of the Congregationalists, the loyalty 
of the Lutherans, and the stateliness of the Episco- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 29 

palians ; while we recognize most fully all branches 
of the Church of Christ as our brethren, as different 
corps of the same grand army ; as fighting under the 
same flag and obedient to the command of the same 
leader ; yet in this year, during which we are celebrat- 
ing the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the 
adoption of our Westminster standards, upon an 
occasion like this and in such presence it will not be 
improper or invidious to give special prominence to 
our own division of the army of the Lord. 

As American Presbyterians we can thank God and 
take courage. Ours is not a Scotch, Dutch, Irish, Eng- 
lish, Welsh, French, Swiss or German Presbyterian 
Church, but a union of all of them ; as with our 
American character, so with it, a resultant of the very 
best of the several constituents from which it was 
originally formed. It has appropriated all that is best 
in the teachings of the Swiss Reformed Church, from 
Ulrich Zwingle to Philip SchafF; in the Huguenot 
Church from John Calvin to Robert Baird; in the 
Scotch Church from John Knox to John Witherspoon ; 
in English and Welsh Presbyterianism from John 
WycklifFe to Jonathan Edwards ; all the best from 
Saint Patrick, father of Presbyterianism in Ire- 
land, to Francis Makemie, one of the fathers of 
Presbyterianism in America. " The soil of Switzer- 
land is in the roots, the blood of Holland is in the 
veins, and the free breath of Scotland in the leaves" 
of the Presbyterianism that shadows a continent and 



30 WESTMIXSTER ASSEMBLY 

offers gospel shelter beneath its branches for the 
world's humanity. All lines of progress in civiliza- 
tion, civil liberty, and human betterment in the old 
world led to and brought forth their richest fruitage 
in the new. Seeds from the old world planted in a 
new soil have grown the largest body of Presby- 
terians on the globe. There are eighty-six affiliated 
branches of the Alliance of the Reformed Churches 
throughout the world holding the Presbyterian 
system. The thirteen branches in the United States 
constitute nearly one-half and our own church one- 
fifth of the world's Presbyterianism. 

IX THE K EVOLUTION. 

The Presbyterian Church of America gave to the 
world the American republic : it was the predomi- 
nant Church of the Revolution. The Baptist Church 
at that period was few in numbers ; the Methodist 
Church was in its infancy and weak ; the Quakers 
and some of the German Churches were non-com- 
batants ; and the Established Church of England in 
the colonies sided with the mother country. The 
Churches that then controlled public sentiment and 
shaped the affairs of State, were the Congregational ists 
of New England and the Presbyterians of the Xew 
England, Middle, and Southern States. The Presby- 
terians greatly outnumbered the Congregationalists ; 
accordingly more than one-half of the officers and 
soldiers of the American armv were Presbvterians. 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 31 

The Hon. Richard Wright, Speaker of the Pennsyl- 
vania House of Representatives, himself an Episco- 
palian, declared that " the American War of Inde- 
pendence was a Presbyterian and Scotch-Irish war." 
Horace Walpole, addressing the English Parliament 
during the Revolution, said : " There is no use crying 
about it. Cousin America has run off with a Presby- 
terian parson, and that is the end of it." Our his- 
torian, Bancroft, writes : " The first voice publicly 
raised in America to dissolve all connection with 
Great Britain came not from the Puritans of New 
England, nor the Dutch of New York, nor the plant- 
ers of Virginia, but from the Scotch-Irish Presbyte- 
rians." In some of the presbyteries of that day " it 
was deemed an offense worthy of discipline for any 
minister to exhibit British sympathies." Indeed so 
prominent were Presbyterian influences that both in 
Europe and America it was popularly spoken of as 
the " Presbyterian rebellion." 

As in colonial and revolutionary times, so ever 
since the Presbyterian Church has been among the 
foremost in support of reform and good government. 
The tendency of its doctrines being to make brainy, 
whole-souled, and resolute men — men of affairs — it is 
not strange that its members are found in the upper- 
most seats of scientific, professional, commercial, and 
political life; that it forms the judicial character 
sought for the supreme and other high courts of the 
land ; that ten times the nation has turned to its 



32 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

Presbyterian elements for its President — Jackson, 
Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Pierce, Buchanan, 
Lincoln, Cleveland, and Harrison. 

The Presbyterian Church is also a leading Church 
in liberality. According to the census of 1890, it 
contributed for missions a larger sum than any other 
denomination. 

ORGANIZATION. 

Not only have we been brought into the kingdom 
for such a time as this, placed in this favored land, 
and connected with a Church that is one of the lead- 
ing factors in moulding and controlling public senti- 
ment, but we have a Church adequately organized 
for the work before it. Our system of Sessions, Pres- 
byteries, Synods, and General Assembly gives true 
representation to the voice of the whole Church. It 
combines strength with elasticity and liberty with 
law; it secures the advantages of federal control, 
while providing for the full development of the in- 
dividual member. 

Our system of boards organizes us for active work. 
The Board of Publication and Sabbath-school Work 
provides instruction and literature for the children 
of the Church. As they advance in years the Board 
of Aid for Colleges and Academies provides them 
with higher instruction, and, if they need it, the 
Board of Education assists in defraying the expenses 
of those who are preparing to become ministers. 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 33 

And when the young men are prepared for the 
active work of the ministry, the Board of Home 
Missions stands ready to send them to the weaker 
churches of the older States, or into the newer regions 
of the land. To those who are called of God to en- 
gage in work among the negroes, the Board of Freed- 
men extends a helping hand. For the maintenance 
of religious school work among mountain whites, 
Negroes, Mormons, Mexicans, Indians, and Alaskans, 
the Women's Board of Home Missions is an efficient 
organization. That the strong churches may help 
the weak, and the feeble congregations secure a sanc- 
tuary of their own, is the work of the Board of Church 
Erection. Home Missions, Freedmen, and Church 
Erection combine to give Gospel privileges to every 
section of this great land. 

And while the Church remembers the divine com- 
mand of "beginning at Jerusalem," it is equally 
loyal to the additional command of sending the 
Gospel message " into all the world." For this 
purpose the Church has the Board of Foreign Mis- 
sions, with its active auxiliaries, The Women's 
Boards of Foreign Missions. And last, but not least, 
when the workers have given their strength to the 
service of the Church, and through failing health or 
the infirmities of increasing years the veterans are 
compelled to retire from active work, the Board of 
Relief for Disabled Ministers, and the Widows and 
Orphans of Deceased Ministers, lovingly cares for 



34 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

them. The Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. has 
the most complete, efficient, and perfect system of 
organized church work in existence. With the in- 
spiration of its past successes, its present influential 
and wealthy membership, and its thorough organiza- 
tion, it stands to-day the leading Church in the evan- 
gelization of America and the world. 

NEED OF A NEW BAPTISM. 

In the neighboring city of Omaha stands Machin- 
ery Hall, Trans-Missouri Exposition, with wheels 
innumerable, shafting by the mile, and machines be- 
wildering in their complexity, but all is motionless. 
They wait the touch of the electric button that com- 
municates power and starts life. Thus the " Boards," 
the machinery through which the Church works, are 
in splendid order, fully equipped, and competent to 
conquer this land and the world for Christ, but they 
are not doing it : they wait the application of divine 
power — the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Not only is 
the Church not advancing all along the line, but it is 
not even holding its own. In places it is retreating ; 
needed reinforcements are not furnished ; consecrated 
men and women separated by the Holy Ghost for 
mission work are not and cannot be sent for want of 
funds. Missionaries who through heroic self-denial 
have pushed forward the work have been compelled 
to fall back for want of supplies. Some churches 
have been closed ; some young converts remanded 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 35 

back to heathenism ; some native catechists, won and 
trained through years of patience and expense, turned 
adrift ; some of the covenant children of the Church 
in the newer settlements denied Gospel privileges, are 
making shipwreck of their souls ; some new and 
growing centers of influence left without the mould- 
ing and restraining influences of the Gospel and a 
" remembered Sabbath," are laying the foundations 
of future socialism and anarchy. Many talents are 
hid in napkins and buried ; many stewardships are 
unrecognized, and many Christians are robbing 
God, by withholding a portion of the offerings that 
are his due. The Church, through her Boards, is in 
debt, and the cry of the missionaries suffering from 
deferred payments and reduced salaries ascends before 
the Most High God. The cries of Church members, 
scattered as sheep without a shepherd — the cries of 
your children going down to destruction, are heard 
all over the land. They reach to Heaven ; they are 
as solemn as eternity. 

To your knees, O Church of the Living God ! The 
great and overwhelming need of the hour — the great 
and overwhelming need of our country and Church 
— the great and overwhelming need of our own souls, 
is the fresh and immediate baptism of the Holy 
Spirit — a baptism which shall set every heart on fire 
of God to possess this land for Christ. At the close 
of this century we face a future of great unrest ; of 
reconstruction; of marvelous and rapid changes. 



36 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 

And the Church must lead and control these changes, 
or be overwhelmed by them. 

" We are living, we are dwelling 
In a grand and awful time ; 
In an age on ages telling, 
To be living is sublime." 

We are living in one of the great crises of the 
world's history. The age demands consecrated men 
and women, consecrated time, consecrated energies, 
and consecrated wealth. Shall it have them? 
" Bring ye all the tithes into the store-house, that 
there may be meat in my house, and prove me now 
herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open 
you the windows of Heaven, and pour you out a 
blessing, that there shall not be room enough to 
receive it." 

" Begin to possess, that thou mayest inherit his 
land." 




Author of the Solemn League and Covenant, and Leader of the Scotch Commissioners. 



ALEXANDER HENDERSON. 
PRESENTATION OF PORTRAIT. 

BY 

W. C. GRAY, LL. D. 



ADDRESS 

BY THE 

Rev. WM. HENRY ROBERTS, D. D., LL.D. 



PRESENTATION OF THE PORTRAIT OF 
ALEXANDER HENDERSON.* 

By Dr. W. C. GRAY, 

EDITOR OF THE INTERIOR. 



Moderator and Gentlemen of the Assembly: 

At the suggestion of your honored stated clerk I 
have taken the liberty of substituting a portrait of 
the great Scottish Reformer, Alexander Henderson, 
for the one promised of John Witherspoon. This is 
more appropriate because we celebrate to-day the 
great Calvinistic, not the American, Declaration of 
Independence. 

And this, brethren, is also an expression of a 
thought which I have long entertained, that we 
make too little of the " living epistles " sent of God 
to us from age to age in the persons of our great 

* Dr. W. C. Gray, in May, 1897, in supporting the invitation for 
the Assembly to meet at Winona Lake, Indiana, in 1898, stated that 
he would present for himself and others a portrait of John Wither- 
spoon to the Assembly. It was suggested to Dr. Gray that the por- 
trait of Henderson would be more appropriate to the occasion, and 
the suggestion was accepted by him on the condition that the stated 
clerk of the Assembly would deliver an address upon the subject of 
the portrait. 

39 



40 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

Christian heroes and saints. Those who have come 
to us since Christ taught and died, vastly outnumber 
those who were sent before. They have been more 
in number, and, I will venture to say, leaving aside 
the prophets and apostles with their divine com- 
mission, more illustrious in life, service, and charac- 
ter. The heroism of these great men was sublime, 
their self-abnegation, Christ-like. Not for glory 
did they brave death, not for honors did they toil, 
but because they were constrained by the love of 
Christ and of their fellow-men. I would that you, 
my spiritual fathers, would read more of these " liv- 
ing epistles" to your people from your pulpits. 

Upon this canvas the form and features of one of 
the great benefactors of the Church are brought to 
view by the skilful brush of the artist. His higher 
self, his mind and soul, his character and services, 
are now to be portrayed by that prince of adopted 
Philadelphians, scholar and orator, Dr. William Henry 
Roberts. 

Dr. Roberts responded to Dr. Gray, saying : 

It gives me sincere pleasure to accept, in the name 
of the General Assembly, the portrait of Alexander 
Henderson, presented for himself and others by our 
distinguished friend, the gifted editor of the Interior. 
The presentation emphasizes our unity in support of 
the common faith, our loyalty to the great Head of 
the Church, and adds a deeper and more lively interest 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 41 

to this historic commemoration. May this incident 
in the celebration be but one of many which shall 
bring us yet closer together as brethren of the same 
household. I now proceed to the delivery of the 
address upon the subject of the portrait. 



ALEXANDER HENDERSON. 

BY THE 

Key. WM. HENRY ROBERTS, D. D., LL. D. 



The Presbyterian Churches, in whatever land lo- 
cated, have been highly privileged of God in the gift 
from him of men competent for the great emergencies 
of their history. Peculiarly has this been true of the 
Church of Scotland, the Church of which Alexander 
Henderson was a minister. First of its leaders must 
ever stand John Knox, and next to him the subject 
of our thought, of whom it was said, in the Scotch 
Assembly of 1647, in an address by Baillie, one of the 
Commissioners to the Westminster Assembly, that his 
career made it obligatory on " the Presbyterians and 
on their posterity to count him the fairest ornament, 
after Mr. John Knox, of incomparable memory, that 
ever the Church of Scotland did enjoy." Placed thus 
next to John Knox in relation to the history of 
British Presbyterianism, it is appropriate on this 
occasion briefly to sketch his life, and to exhibit his 
intimate connection with the history of those great 
standards of faith and practice, which it is our privi- 
lege to maintain, as well as to commemorate. 

43 



44 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

Alexander Henderson was born in the year 1583, 
at Creich, in Fifeshire, Scotland. The Hendersons 
of Ford el claim him as a cadet of their family. He 
graduated at St. Andrews' University in 1603, and by 
the year 1610 was a professor therein and also ques- 
tor of the Faculty of Arts. His reputation for learn- 
ing and philosophy was completely established at the 
early age of twenty -seven. Shortly thereafter he be- 
came minister of the parish of Leuchars, in the Pres- 
bytery of St. Andrews, and was at the time of his 
installation a supporter of Episcopacy. The religious 
controversies then prevalent in Scotland, however, 
quickly brought him face to face with the undying 
conflict between the Presbyterian and Episcopal, the 
popular and the autocratic forms of Church Govern- 
ment. While debating the issue between the two, an 
event befell Henderson which became the turning- 
point of his life. The Rev. Robert Bruce of Kinnaird, 
one of the distinguished Presbyterian ministers of the 
period, administered communion one Sabbath in a par- 
ish adjoining that over which Henderson was pastor. 
The latter attended the preparatory service, and, un- 
der the fervent preaching of Bruce, underwent, ac- 
cording to his own testimony, that great inward change 
which we know as regeneration. From the hour of 
his conversion, like others of the great evangelical 
leaders, he at once abandoned Episcopacy, and threw 
himself heart and soul into the cause of the Reforma- 
tion. The evangelical faith is always antagonistic 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 45 

to hierarchical pretensions, and there is an intimate 
relationship between the doctrines of grace and true 
liberty. 

So distinguished and able a minister as Hen- 
derson became speedily a leader of the Presby- 
terians. The times were critical, and the man called 
of God had appeared. About 1625, Charles I. began 
his efforts to force upon Scotland the Episcopal wor- 
ship and ceremonies practised in England. Melville 
and Calderwood, the old leaders of the Reformation, 
had been banished from the kingdom. Henderson, 
instead of being overawed by their fate, came boldly for- 
ward in defense of liberty. The struggle went on for 
several years, and came finally to a crisis in St. Giles' 
Cathedral, Edinburgh, on Sunday, July 23, 1637, by 
the act of Jenny Geddes, who threw the stool upon 
which she had been sitting at the officiating priest, 
as he began the reading of the English Liturgy. 
This act of a Scotch matron was the beginning of 
the struggle for constitutional and Christian freedom, 
not only for Scotland but for the world. Not the 
first time, by the way, that women have played an 
influential part in the cause of civil and religious 
liberty. Men and women of all classes of society, 
and the great majority of the nobility of Scotland, at 
once took sides against the king and the bishops. 
The monarch refusing to call a General Assembly, 
Presbyterians quickly found another method of co- 
operation. Every county, presbytery, and borough 



46 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

in the kingdom appointed a representative, who 
constituted, with the nobility, and with Henderson 
and Dickson, a General Council. It was arranged 
that these Commissioners, as they were called, should 
meet as a body only on extraordinary occasions, and 
that ordinary executive power should be vested in 
four committees or tables, consisting each of four 
individuals, one table of noblemen, another of gentle- 
men, a third of burgesses, and a fourth of ministers. 
A member from each of these four tables constituted 
the chief table, possessed of supreme authority. Of 
this chief table, Henderson, as the leading minister 
of Scotland, soon became the dominating spirit. 
Side by side with the king's government, therefore, 
there came promptly into existence in Scotland a 
new representative government, and its orders were 
everywhere obeyed with far more promptitude than 
those of the most despotic of tyrants. Through the 
five tables or boards all Scotland could be set in 
motion within forty-eight hours, and more than once 
was so set in motion, in support of the principles of 
the Reformation. 

Having thus organized the Presbyterian forces, it 
was natural that some steps should be taken which 
would bind them indissolubly into one. The Epis- 
copal authorities, with the sanction of the king, 
endeavored to foment differences between the Presby- 
terians. There were three parties among the latter, 
one called the Eastern, the second the Western, and 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 47 

the third the Highland. Edinburgh was the center 
of one, Glasgow of another, and Aberdeen of the 
third. Between them there was much friction. 
Henderson, however, knew the people with whom he 
was dealing. He realized then, what has been wit- 
nessed often since in the history of the Presbyterian 
Churches, that, however they may differ upon many 
things, there is one thing which unites them firmly to- 
gether, loyalty to sound doctrine. Henderson, there- 
fore, proposed through the tables to the Reformers, that, 
as they were declared outlaws and rebels by their 
sovereign, they should join in covenant with their God. 
The covenant as written by him consisted of three 
parts : first, the old covenant of 1560, containing the 
Confession of Faith ; second, the acts of Parliament 
sustaining the Confession of Scotland against popery ; 
and third, special clauses applicable to the prevailing 
circumstances. It was worded so as to set forth not 
only the determination of the signers to " resist all 
contrary errors to the uttermost of their power all 
the days of their lives," but also pledged them not " to 
suffer themselves to be defeated or withdraw from 
their union." 

Wednesday, February 28, 1638, became in con- 
nection with this covenant, known as the Solemn 
League and Covenant, one of the most memorable 
days in the history of the world. Presbyterians had 
crowded to Edinburgh to the number of sixty thou- 
sand. A fast had been appointed in the church of 



48 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

the Grey Friars. At two o'clock on that day the 
venerable edifice, and the large open space around it, 
were filled with Reformers from every portion of the 
country. Henderson constituted the meeting by 
prayer. The Earl of Loudon stated the occasion of 
the gathering. The covenant was then read. Objec- 
tions, which were few, were heard, and about four 
o'clock the venerable Earl of Sutherland stepped 
forward and put the first name to the memorable 
instrument. After his signature had been appended, 
it was carried the rounds of the whole church, and 
was then taken out to be signed by the crowd in the 
church-yard. Here it was spread upon a flat tomb- 
stone, and many wrote after their names the words, " till 
death," and some, ink failing, opened their veins and 
signed with their own blood. In testimony of their 
sincerity, the signers, after the subscription had been 
completed, confirmed it by an oath. Grandly solemn 
must the scene have been, when, the signatures hav- 
ing been completed, that vast assemblage of nobles, 
gentry, ministers, elders, and burgesses, with uplifted 
hands, with tears streaming down their faces, called 
upon God to witness to their loyalty to the Solemn 
League and Covenant. Well iriight Henderson say, 
" that this was the day of the Lord's power, wherein 
the arm of the Lord was revealed, the day of the 
Redeemer's strength, on which the princes of the 
people assembled to swear their allegiance to the 
King of Kings." 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 49 

The signing of the Solemn League and Covenant 
at Grey friars' Church was followed by the signature 
of copies of it in every portion of Scotland. The 
effect upon the hierarchical party was decisive. They 
found that the people were practically a unit for the 
Presbyterian Reformation. The king at first deter- 
mined to use force, but soon became convinced that it 
would be a useless thing so to do. The Reformers or 
Covenanters followed up their advantage by petition- 
ing the king to call the General Assembly. To this 
he finally consented, and on November 21, 1638, the 
first General Assembly in twenty years met in St. 
Mungo's Cathedral in the city of Glasgow. To this 
Assembly gathered all the chief lords of the Coun- 
cil and barons of Scotland, who sat in the body 
armed, and who, in more than one sense, were ruling 
elders. Along w T ith them, and a number of other 
elders, were seated the ministers from the several 
Presbyteries, to the number of about one hundred 
and forty. The body was presided over at first by 
the Lord High Commissioner, the Duke of Hamilton, 
appointed by the king to represent him, and was 
opened with prayer by the Rev. John Bell, the oldest 
minister of the bounds. The High Commissioner 
endeavored in every way possible to prevent action 
on the part of the Assembl} 7 , even to the extent of 
opposing the choice of a moderator, but in vain. 
Alexander Henderson was duly elected, and under 
his skilful leadership the Constitution of the Church 



50 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

was in all particulars restored to that which it had 
been under John Knox, and the bishops whom the 
king had established in Scotland were deposed from 
office. The deposition of the bishops took place on 
Tuesday, the 13th of December, in the presence of 
a great multitude, being preceded by a sermon by 
Henderson upon the text, " The Lord said unto my 
Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine 
enemies thy footstool." After the sermon, Henderson, 
with great solemnity and gravit} T , pronounced the 
sentence of deposition. In the performance of this 
act he had the unique honor of being the one Pres- 
byterian moderator, who, with due forms of law, de- 
posed from the places which they had usurped in the 
Church of Scotland, two archbishops and twelve 
bishops. Of these bishops, eight were excommuni- 
cated as well as deposed. Thus was the Church freed 
from the bonds of ecclesiastical tyranny, and thus 
was signally vindicated its power to govern itself, under 
Christ, the supreme Head. 

The struggle begun in Scotland spread gradually 
to other portions of the kingdom of Great Britain. 
In England and Wales, Puritanism had been accom- 
plishing its beneficent revolutionary work. The 
Presbyterians had become a powerful party in the 
Church of England, and the Long Parliament was 
controlled by them. They had also been materially 
aided by the warlike acts of the Covenanters of Scot- 
land, who in defense of their liberties had invaded 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 51 

England, and had inflicted serious defeats upon the 
forces of King Charles. In this condition of affairs, 
Henderson, as the leader of the Church of Scotland, 
an Assembly moderator with a victorious army at his 
back, was appointed one of the Commissioners to 
negotiate a treaty with the king. As a result, on the 
first of October, a truce was established between the 
warring parties, and from Ripon, the place of meet- 
ing, the Scotch Commissioners went to London and 
brought charges against Laud, the Archbishop of 
Canterbury. In 1641, the Scotch General Assembly 
again met, and Henderson was made a second time 
moderator. By this time he had become the leader, 
not only in the Church, but also in the State. His was 
the influence of moral force and of strong and equable 
character. At the Assembly of 1642, which met at St. 
Andrews, Henderson was appointed to answer a letter 
from the Parliament of England, and in the reply 
which he prepared he emphasized the necessity of hav- 
ing one Confession of Faith, Catechism, and Directory 
in both nations. To this proposal of Henderson's the 
Parliament of England consented, and announced 
their resolution to call an assembly of divines, and 
to require some ministers from the Kirk of Scotland 
to assist at the deliberations. Henderson was there- 
fore the author of the proposition which resulted in 
the calling of the Westminster Assembly, and in that 
body, the Commissioners from the Church of Scotland 
were, Henderson as the leading minister, with Douglas, 



")2 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

Gillespie, Rutherford, and Baillie, and, in addition, 
ruling elders, the Lords Cassillis, Maitland, and War- 
riston. 

At the Westminster Assembly great honor was paid 
to Henderson. To him was assigned the framing of 
the first draft of the Directory for Public Worship. 
He took part in the Assembly for a sufficient length 
of time to see the Liturgy overthrown in England, as 
it had been in Scotland, and the Presbyterian Church 
made the Established Church of England. These 
changes were effected after a recommendation from 
the Westminster Assembly by the Parliament. Hen- 
derson also persuaded both the Westminster Assem- 
bly and the English Parliament to accept the Solemn 
League and Covenant. Both bodies met for the pur- 
pose in St. Margaret's Church, London, the Covenant 
was explained at length by Henderson, was read arti- 
cle by article, and then two hundred and twenty-two 
members of Parliament signed the instrument, as did 
also the Assembly and many of the audience. Thus 
were England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland welded 
into unity in maintenance of the true faith and of 
the cause of liberty. Henderson intended also to 
visit the Reformed Churches of the Continent, and 
was the chief writer of a manifesto sent by the West- 
minster Assembly in the interests of the common faith, 
to the Churches of Holland, France, Germany, and 
Switzerland. He returned to Scotland for a brief 
period, and was present at the Scotch Assembly of 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 53 

1645, which approved the Westminster Directory of 
Public Worship. Then he went back for a few 
weeks to Westminster, and took part in the work of 
completing the version of the Psalms known as Rous's, 
from the name of its author, Francis Rous, a native 
of Cornwall, England. The last important public act 
in the life of Henderson was the conduct of a dispu- 
tation with King Charles I., upon the points which 
separated the king from the Covenanters. This dis- 
putation was conducted in writing at Newcastle, Eng- 
land, in 1646. The papers containing it are extant, 
and the answer to the claim made by some persons 
at the time, that the king's arguments were the 
stronger, was, that if such was the case, then as the 
king's arguments were authorities from the fathers, 
who were fallible men, his triumph was over the 
Word of God. Immediately after the conclusion of 
this disputation, which bound the king and Hender- 
son yet closer in ties of a personal friendship which 
had long existed, Henderson's constitution broke 
down. Never a robust man, the mental anxieties 
and fatigue of public life made him the easy prey of 
disease. He passed from earth to heaven on the 19th 
of August, 1646, at the age of fifty -three years. 

But what a record is that of his life. How it em- 
phasizes the value of unremitting devotion to the 
cause of truth. Savingly converted by the earnest 
preaching of the Word of God, he was faithful to that 
Word in every hour. How his life sets forth also the 



54 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

power of a patient, clear-sighted, prompt, and firm 
mind. In the furnace of controversy, Henderson 
never departed from the gentle courtesy which be- 
comes the servant of the Lord. In the great emer- 
gencies of the conflict between truth and error he 
saw what ought to be done and did it. When a 
course of action was once determined upon, he fol- 
lowed it strenuously and persistently until the result 
was secured. As the head of the Boards of the Scotch 
ecclesiastical Republic ; as the moderator who ruled 
with a hand of steel in a velvet glove; as the de- 
stroyer in Scotland of a church government alien to 
the faith and spirit of the people ; as the penman of the 
Solemn League and Covenant; as the proposer of the 
Westminster Assembly ; as the leading Commissioner 
of the Church of Scotland in that great body ; as the 
friend of the king; as the unifier of the forces of 
righteousness and order in Church and State, he 
stands a man whose like either Church or State have 
seldom known. His fellow commissioner, Baillie, 
pronounced upon him a tender eulogium in the 
Scotch Assembly of 1647, saying, among other things, 
" May I be permitted to conclude with my earnest 
wish that that glorious soul of worthy memory, 
who is now crowned with the reward of his labors 
for God and for us, may be fragrant among us 
so long as pure and free Assemblies remain in this 
land, which I hope will be till the coming of the 
Lord." 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 55 

In a land but little known during his lifetime the 
memory of Alexander Henderson is to-day gratefully 
remembered and lovingly acknowledged. His hope 
for the unity of the Churches of God is not yet fully 
realized, but the liberty for which he strove and the 
faith for which he contended, have flourished greatly 
in this continent west of the Atlantic ! The men of 
the Revolution of 1776, almost without exception, 
were believers in the principles of Westminster, and 
the churches which they founded and maintained 
were in full harmony with those great Standards. 
In this land, further, the popular government which 
Henderson loved, and which finds its roots in the 
Calvinistic system, has come to full development. 
Do you ask for one monument of Henderson and his 
colaborers, look upon this Republic, free, united, pros- 
perous. Do you ask for another, look upon the Pres- 
byterian Churches of this land, loyal to the core, de- 
spite all oppositions, to the truth of God. May the 
Presbyterians of this land be as true as the fathers 
to the Calvinistic system, recognizing always, as the 
men of Westminster recognized, these great truths : 

1. That the glory of the Presbyterian Churches has 
been, is, and will be, steadfast adherence to the system 
of doctrine which they believe to be contained in the 
Holy Scriptures, and undeviating loyalty to Christ 
as the sole Prophet, Priest, and King of his Church. 

2. That the Word of God is the supreme law of 
man, and that an open Bible means not only the rule 



56 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

of righteousness in every life, but also a free Church 
and a free State in every land. 

3. That evangelical religion is both the source and 
strength of true liberty and progress. The truth 
of God is in order to goodness, and the only hope for 
the redemption, secular and spiritual, of this sin- 
cursed world, is found in that Gospel by which men 
" are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incor- 
ruptible, which liveth and abideth for ever." 

Thus realizing duty, thus compassed about with 
the great cloud of witnesses, let us in this later age 
of the world be true to all the glory of the past and 
all the hopes of the future. Let us press 

"On! straight onward, for the right! 
On ! let all the soul within you 
For the truth's sake go abroad; 
On ! let every nerve and sinew 
Tell on ages, tell for God." 



THE CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS CONDI- 
TIONS OF THE TIMES OF THE 
WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 

BY THE 

Key- SAMUEL J. NICCOLLS, D. D, LL. D. 



THE CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS OF 

THE TIMES OF THE WESTMINSTER 

ASSEMBLY. 

BY THE 

Rev. SAMUEL J. NICCOLLS, D.D., LL. D. 



Moderator, Fathers, and Brethren : 

At first reading, one might readily suppose the 
Westminster Standards to be the product of quiet 
times, the labor of cloistered theologians who, re- 
moved from the distractions of life and unaffected 
by the passions of men, carefully elaborated their 
opinions. Logical and symmetrical in form, written 
in a clear passionless style, and with the single excep- 
tion of the reference to the papacy, free from all terms 
or phrases that would indicate controversy or con- 
demnation of opposing views, they give no indica- 
tion that they were framed in tumultuous times, when 
the feelings of men were excited to the highest de- 
gree. Like pure gold that has passed through the 
furnace, the smell of fire is not on them. But he who 
would attempt to account for them by simply refer- 
ring to the Act of Parliament that called into exist- 
ence the Westminster Assembly of divines, has a very 
imperfect and superficial conception of their origin. 

59 



60 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

He fails to take into account the great forces that 
have worked in history, of which they are in part the 
expression. Two hundred and fifty years backward 
from to-day takes us to a critical period in English his- 
tory. The leaven of great truths, fermenting for years 
among the people, had at last wrought its work, and 
was now bubbling, and swelling, and breaking forth 
on the surface of society with irresistible force. It is 
true that when on the 3d of November, 1640, Parlia- 
ment, the historic Long Parliament, assembled, it 
was with the promise and hope of peace. 

The speaker of the House of Commons in glowing 
terms congratulated the king on the prosperity of 
his realm and the glory of his throne. Gathered 
around him were the Lords Temporal, apparelled after 
their order, and the scarlet-robed barons; with them 
clothed in lawn and rochet were the Lords Spiritual, 
the representatives of the ancient Church of England. 
All were fervent in their expressions of loyalty, and 
the stately ceremonials of the occasion gave no indi- 
cation of the suppressed feeling that was soon to burst 
forth in a tempest of wrath, overwhelming for a time 
both throne and church. A crisis was at hand des- 
tined by its effects to influence not only the future 
history of England but of the world. Two parties 
were there facing each other, ready to join in a life- 
and-death struggle. One was composed of the men 
of the past, the representatives of the ancient order, 
the supporters of the divine right of kings, the up- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 61 

holders of hierarchy. The other consisted of the men 
of the future, the forerunners of liberty, the pioneers 
of democracy, whose mission it was to make the 
crooked places straight and the rough places plain, 
that a highway might be prepared along which in 
future ages the people would march to their destiny 
in peace and safety. The causes which led to the 
then existing condition of affairs are not difficult to 
discover. Among them must be placed the revolt 
against the authority of Rome, begun in the preced- 
ing century by Henry VIII. That revolt was more 
political than religious in its character ; it was a decla- 
ration of independence upon the part of the English 
people from an oppressive foreign despotism. It was 
in no true sense a reformation of the Church from its 
error and superstition ; but it was a step fraught with 
important consequences for the future liberties of the 
people. Associated with it was a more potent cause, 
the doctrines of the Reformation that was then agi- 
tating Europe. These doctrines, briefly summarized, 
were three : The right of private judgment or liberty 
of conscience ; the supreme authority of holy Scrip- 
ture; and justification by faith alone. They were 
the cardinal doctrines of Protestantism. It is not 
material now to state how they entered into England ; 
it is enough to know that they were received at first 
by a few, but gradually acquired a larger dominion. 
Their presence and working can readily be seen, now 
in political dissensions, now in doctrinal discussions, 



62 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

and again in disputes concerning rites and ceremonies. 
Their growth can be traced by martyrdoms, impris- 
onments, and persecutions. Those who advocated 
them did so at the peril of their lives. 

The prison, the scaffold, and the burning stake 
were then, as they ever have been, the milestones 
marking progress in the march of civil and religious 
liberty. It was not, however, until the close of the 
reign of Elizabeth that Protestantism was firing 
established in England, and accepted by the majority 
of the people. But even then the condition of the 
National Church was far from satisfactory. It still 
bore the marks of its old enslavement to Rome. 
There were those in it who demanded a larger and 
clearer application of the doctrines of the Reforma- 
tion. They desired to see the Church of their fathers 
set free from the bondage of ecclesiastical tyranny 
and brought into close conformity to the Scriptures, 
both in doctrine and government. Many of these 
when driven abroad by persecution had found a 
refuge in Geneva and Holland, and in these great 
schools of liberty had been instructed more fully in 
the Calvinistic doctrines and the Presbyterian polity. 
They returned earnest propagandists of these new 
views. These, with others like minded with them, 
constituted the Puritan element of the Church of 
England. They were not separatists. They did not 
purpose to establish an independent church, but 
their consciences forbade them to conform to certain 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 63 

usages which seemed to them contrary to the truth 
of the gospel. Ceremonial worship or a simple ser- 
vice, altars or communion tables, kneeling or sitting 
at the reception of the Holy Communion, white sur- 
plices or black gowns were to them burning ques- 
tions. However trivial they may seem to us, they 
were then questions involving vital doctrines. The 
contention of the Puritans was that they should 
be free from the commandments and traditions of 
men, and that the ritual of the Church should be 
purged from all papistical ceremonies and services 
and restored to the simplicity of the Apostolic Church. 
So it was, when upon the death of Elizabeth, James 
I. came to the throne, the hopes of the Puritan party 
were greatly revived. Was he not a member of the 
Presbyterian Church of Scotland ? Had he not given 
his kingly word to maintain its liberties ? Had he 
not spoken of the English Prayer-book as " an evil 
said mass in English, wanting nothing of the mass 
but the liftings?" No wonder that the millenary 
petition signed by a thousand clergymen of the 
Church of England asking for a revision of the ritual 
for public worship and for a reform in government, 
was presented to him with confidence and hope. 
The historic conference at Hampton Court, so fatal 
in its results, effectually destroyed this hope. James, 
whom Henry IV. of France called "the wisest fool in 
Christendom," seemed to have changed his principles, 
if he ever had any, in leaving the climate of Edin- 



64 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

burgh for that of London. The conference ended 
with the king's declaration, " I will make them con- 
form or else I will harrie them out of the land, or 
else do worse, hang them, that is all." It was a decla- 
ration of war upon the part of the throne, a fatal 
policy for the ill-starred house of the Stuarts. It is 
needless now to state what followed. The heroic 
sacrifices of the non-conforming ministers, the grow- 
ing arrogance of the bishops, the inquisitorial pro- 
ceedings of the Star Chamber and High Commission, 
the conflicts between Parliament and the throne, and 
the despotic assumptions of the king are well-known 
matters of history. The determination of the throne 
and the hierarchy to enforce conformity resulted in 
increasing and strengthening the party of liberty. As 
with Israel in Egypt " the more they afflicted them 
the more they multiplied and grew." Puritanism 
was not originally opposed to prelacy as a form of 
church government; the Puritans would have ac- 
cepted it in a modified form ; nor were they opposed 
to a liturgy as such. But the intolerance of the 
bishops, their preference for Roman Catholic rites 
and ceremonies, and their close alliance with despot- 
ism in civil government widened the breach between 
the parties. James's attempt to establish Episcopacy 
in the Church of Scotland aroused the sturdy Presby- 
terians of that country to the verge of rebellion, and 
led to a closer sympathy between them and the suf- 
fering Puritans of England. 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 65 

There was also another cause which contributed 
largely to the growth of the Puritan party, and se- 
cured for it finally the sympathy and co-operation 
of the masses of the people. It was the encroach- 
ments of the throne upon their civil liberties — the 
attempt to rob them of their constitutional rights. 
Indeed, such was the condition of affairs at this time 
that it is impossible to draw a definite boundary-line 
between the great political and religious questions at 
issue. Each involved the other. The king was by 
law the head of the church as well as of the state ; 
and in both of these positions he claimed despotic 
powers for himself. James was a fanatical believer 
in the doctrine of absolute monarchy. He looked 
upon himself as a second providence on earth, the 
fountain of all power, at liberty to make or unmake 
his subjects according to his own pleasure, and ac- 
countable to none but God for his actions. The peo- 
ple had no rights, but only privileges such as the 
throne might choose to grant. To doubt the correct- 
ness of these notions was in his judgment blasphemy 
and treason. Naturally, his attempt to govern in 
accordance with these opinions led to a conflict with 
the people, who were proud of their ancient liberties 
and chartered rights. The outlook for the reforma- 
tion of the church and for the interests of civil liberty 
at the time of the death of James I., which took place 
April 27, 1625, was most gloomy and depressing. 
There was prevailing discontent with the govern- 



66 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

ment and a growing apprehension that the Anglican 
Church would again come under the control of the 
papacy. Nor was this condition improved by the 
accession of Charles I. to the throne. An abler man 
than his father, he had inherited his extravagant 
notions of kingly prerogatives ; but what with James 
was a theory which he was too cowardly to press to 
logical results, was with his son a principle on which 
he was ready to risk his throne and life. Obstinate 
and determined in his purposes, yet treacherous and 
unprincipled in his methods of accomplishing them, 
he sought to establish in England, in defiance of its 
Parliament and Constitution, a despotism like that 
which Richelieu fastened on France. Petitions of rights 
scornfully rejected, taxes levied without authority, 
forced loans, Parliament after Parliament defied and 
dissolved because it refused to submit to the royal 
dictation, its patriotic members fined and imprisoned, 
showed that Charles at least had the courage of his 
convictions. At last came the eleven years in which 
the king reigned without a parliament, a period in 
which his plans and purposes were so fully developed 
that the conflict between the throne asserting its des- 
potic prerogatives and the commonwealth fighting 
for its liberties could no longer be avoided. As 
tyranny always does, Charles himself prepared the 
way for the convulsions that overturned his throne. 
Two historic figures come in view in connection with 
the king ; one is Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Straf- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 67 

ford, his most trusted counsellor and minister in 
political and military affairs ; the other, Archbishop 
Laud, Primate of the Church. Both were men of 
extraordinary ability and energy, both equally de- 
voted to the cause of absolutism, and both fated to 
expiate their folly on the scaffold. 

What Strafford attempted to do with his policy of 
" Thorough " in the State, Laud attempted to do in 
the Church. Both succeeded in intensifying the op- 
position and in increasing the number and determi- 
nation of the friends of civil and religious liberty. 
Laud, by his foolish attempt to force Episcopacy and 
a Komanized ritual upon the Church of Scotland, 
aroused that kingdom to take arms in defense of its 
liberties. The insane demand of tyranny and big- 
otry was answered by the signing of the Solemn 
League and Covenant in Greyfriars' church-yard. 
Presbyterian Scotland rallied around the blue ban- 
ner of the covenant in defense of the crown rights 
of King Jesus and the liberties of his Church. 
Equally irritating were Laud's attempts to enforce 
conformity to his mandates in England. He was 
fond of gorgeous ceremonials, cared little for preach- 
ing, believed in sacramentarianism, was an Arminian 
in his theology, hated dissent and non-conformity 
with a perfect hatred, and claimed for the bishops 
the reverence and submission due to a superior and 
a divinely appointed order in the Church. In short, 
as Macaulay testifies, " of all the Anglican bishops, 



68 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

he had departed farthest from the Reformation and 
drawn nearest to Rome." Under his direction every 
part of the realm was investigated, and all Dissenters 
and Non-conformists visited with severe punishment. 
The case of Dr. Alexander Leighton, father of the 
future archbishop, tried and condemned by the in- 
famous Star Chamber process, illustrates his method 
of procedure. Dr. Leighton had written a pamphlet 
in favor of Presbyterianism and against prelacy. For 
this offense he was imprisoned and degraded from 
holy orders. Escaping from prison he was retaken, 
publicly whipped, exposed to the pillory, one ear cut 
off, his nose slit, and his cheek branded with the letters 
S. S., meaning " a stirrer up of sedition." After this he 
was sent to prison for ten years. It is easy to see 
how such actions increased popular feeling against 
the Church, and led to corresponding extremes on 
the part of the Puritans. Some, indeed, despairing 
of better times and anxious to escape from the intoler- 
able tyranny, left England to find a refuge and free- 
dom of conscience in the colonies of the New World. 
The great mass of the Puritans stood doggedly in 
their lot, and grew more determined and extreme in 
their antagonism. Always caring more for the spirit 
of worship than about its forms, they now came to 
hate religious ceremonies. They were as zealous 
against conformity as the prelatical party were for it. 
Their ministers made it a matter of conscience to 
wear the black gown instead of the surplice, and to 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. G9 

omit certain portions of the liturgy. The people 
would not give the responses ; they would sit when 
they ought to stand, and stand when the ritual re- 
quired them to kneel, or remain erect when they 
should bow. Honest convictions, patriotism, fanati- 
cism, resentment, hatred of despotism, and religious 
zeal were all mingled together in one stream of feel- 
ing, that would soon grow into the violence of a 
torrent. 

Through the vigorous efforts of Strafford and Laud 
the government of England was now as despotic in 
method and action as that of France under Louis 
XIV. But it lacked an element of permanence — an 
army. The necessity for money and an army to sup- 
due the outbreak in Presbyterian Scotland compelled 
Charles to convoke another parliament. Accord- 
ingly in November, 1640, there met that renowned 
Parliament which as Macaulay says, " In spite of its 
errors and disasters, is justly entitled to the reverence 
and gratitude of all who in any part of the world en- 
joy the blessings p-f constitutional government." It 
fairly represented the great heart of the English peo- 
ple, irritated and angry, yet true to righteousness, 
and determined to stand by the liberties of the nation. 
This is not the time, even if it were possible, to relate 
in detail its proceedings. Enough to state that its 
first step was to remove crying abuses, sweep away 
Star Chamber and High Commission, bring the 
instruments of tyranny to justice, and restrict the 



70 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

powers of the king. At the same time its attention 
was turned to ecclesiastical affairs. Religious liberty, 
or relief from the despotism of prelacy, was one of the 
crying needs of the hour. Men could not forget what 
they had suffered for conscience sake under the tyran- 
nical and inquisitorial proceedings of Laud. The 
Primate was imprisoned in the Tower, and measures 
were proposed for the revision of the liturgy of the 
Church. It is idle to speculate as to what might 
have taken place had moderate counsels prevailed at 
this juncture. It is sufficient to say that the folly or 
panic of the bishops and the obstinacy and perfidy 
of the king, wrought together with Puritan zeal and 
fanaticism to hasten the end. Never were more con- 
scientious or abler representatives of the people gath- 
ered together than were to be found in this Parlia- 
ment. That they committed excesses, which cooler 
judgment cannot justify, is true. But what they in 
the main demanded in behalf of civil and religious 
liberty was reasonable, and is now accepted by all as 
just. Step by step they were led to adopt measures 
which they had not intended at first. They were, 
without knowing it, in the swift current of a revolu- 
tion. In 1G42 Charles, infuriated by the action of 
Parliament, left London and shortly after raised the 
royal standard to rally his followers in defense of the 
throne. Civil war had come with all its horrors and 
distractions. England, from one end to the other, 
was filled with alarm and confusion. There was 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 71 

much marching and countermarching, much fight- 
ing and praying and fasting and preaching and 
singing of Psalms. Prince Rupert and his fiery 
troopers riding up and down the land, Essex with 
his sturdy militia, and Cromwell with his Psalm- 
singing Ironsides, furnish the main figures in the 
war-scenes. In the meantime Parliament continued 
its sessions, ever growing more radical in its measures. 
In. 1643 a bill was introduced and passed for the utter 
abolition of Episcopacy. Parliament had reached 
this conclusion, "That this government by arch- 
bishops, bishops, their chancellors and commissaries, 
deans and chapters, arch-deacons and other ecclesi- 
astical officers depending upon the hierarchy, is evil, 
and justly offensive and burdensome to the kingdom, 
a great impediment to the reformation and growth 
of religion, very prejudicial to the state and govern- 
ment of this kingdom and that we are resolved that 
the same should be taken away." This was speedily 
followed in the same year by an ordinance command- 
ing that an assembly of divines should be convened 
at Westminster, " For the settling of the government 
and liturgy of the Church of England, and for vindi- 
cating and clearing of the doctrines of the said Church 
from false aspersions and interpretations, as should 
be found most agreeable to the word of God, and most 
apt to procure and preserve the peace of the Church 
at home, and nearer agreement with the Church of 
Scotland and other Reformed churches abroad." So 



72 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

began the famous Westminster Assembly. It was 
called, not to theoretical discussions, but to an in- 
tensely practical work. The old form of the national 
church had been set aside, a new one must be speedily 
constructed. The Assembly, in its work, was to 
listen not to the voice of tradition, or to the com- 
mands of hierarchies, or to human wisdom, but 
solely to the Word of God. It is not easy to exagger- 
ate the critical and exciting character of the years 
during which it held its sessions. Upon the removal 
of the restraints of despotism, new views and doctrines 
with regard to both civil and religious affairs were 
earnestly promulgated. There were the Levellers, 
the Fifth Monarchy Men, the Socinians, the Anti- 
nomians, the Quakers, the Erastians, and the Inde- 
pendents, the Radicals of that day, as well as Presby- 
terians and Episcopalians. The opening sermon of 
the Assembly from the text, " I will not leave you 
comfortless, I will come to you," and its frequent days 
of fasting and prayer show that it appreciated the 
seriousness of its position and felt the evil of the 
times. During these same years public feeling was 
wrought up to the highest pitch by the events of the 
Civil War. There were alternations of hope and de- 
spair, as victory or defeat attended the forces of Par- 
liament. There were riots, incipient insurrections, 
contentions between factions and insurgents, defec- 
tions, and bloody executions. There were battles 
such as Marston Moor and Naseby. At last th^ Roy- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 73 

alists were utterly defeated, the king imprisoned, 
tried, and executed ; the monarchy abolished and 
the commonwealth triumphantly established by mili- 
tary power. In short, the Assembly held its sessions 
in the midst of a great revolution ; but it was a revo- 
lution with a conscience. No reader of history can 
fail to notice the contrast between it and another that 
took place a little more than a century later in 
France. It also was a fierce protest against a crush- 
ing despotism; a frantic uprising of the outraged 
people against their robber ruler. It, too, for a time 
overturned the throne and the established church. 
But what a difference between the French National 
Assembly and the English Long Parliament; between 
the so-called worship of reason and the Westminster 
Confession and Directory for worship ; between Jacob- 
ins and Puritans. The men who wrote in the declar- 
ation of their faith that cardinal doctrine of liberty, 
" God alone is Lord of the conscience," as a witness 
against all tyranny, also held the deeper and funda- 
mental truth that God is Lord of the conscience, and 
that true liberty is obedience to him. It does not 
belong to me to vindicate the agreement of the work 
of the Assembly with the teachings of Holy Scrip- 
ture ; but certain it is that it wrote the great religious 
creed of democracy. Its doctrines and its polity are 
vitally allied to both civil and ecclesiastical liberty. 
It is a fact of history that the men who have held 
that Confession have ever been the foes of despotism 



74 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

and the friends of freedom. Whatever may be the 
future of the Confession, one thing we can safely say, 
it will never be the creed of a despotic government. 
of a priest-ridden church, or of an enslaved people. 
It would be a false and misleading view of the civil 
and religious condition of the times of the Westmin- 
ster Assembly to attribute all the virtue, patriotism, 
and purity of principle of that day to the Puritans, 
and all the intolerance, irreligion, and wickedness 
to the Royalists. He would be a rash man who 
would attempt to justify all the acts of the Parliamen- 
tary party. Revolutions like earthquakes are not 
careful to respect the Ten Commandments. The men 
of that day who rose up in behalf of civil and relig- 
ious liberty, saw more clearly the evils of the despot- 
ism they hated, than they did the right application 
of their own principles. They saw as did the half- 
healed blind man when he beheld u men n as trees 
" walking." They had not yet purged themselves 
of that religious intolerance which they condemned 
in others. Like the fiery sons of Zebedee. they were 
ready to call down fire from heaven upon those who 
did not share their faith. Parliament was as ready 
to demand and enforce conformity to the new Direc- 
tory for Worship as the Prelatists had been in behalf 
of the " Book of Prayer." True, some souls with clearer 
vision held such sentiments as Dr. Cudworth uttered 
in his sermon before the House of Commons : " The 
golden beams of truth and the silken cords of love 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 75 

twisted together will draw men on with a sweet vio- 
lence, whether they will or no. Let us take heed 
that we do not sometimes call that zeal for God and 
his Gospel which is nothing else but our own temp- 
tations and stormy passions. True zeal is a sweet, 
heavenly, and gentle flame, which makes us active 
for God, but always within the sphere of love. It- 
never calls for fire from heaven to consume those that 
differ a little from us in their apprehensions. It is 
like that kind of lightning which the philosophers 
speak of, which melts the sword within, but singeth 
not the scabbard. It strives to save the soul, but 
hurteth not the body." But more believed in the 
necessity and efficacy of Acts of Parliament, in order 
to keep men within the bounds of true religion and 
to suppress dissent. Accordingly, the original chap- 
ter on the Civil Magistrate, which in later times has 
been amended, expressed the prevailing views of that 
age. We can readity see their defects, but we cannot 
cast a stone at these beginners in the school of free- 
dom. Religious tolerance is a hard lesson to learn, 
and it is questionable if even in our own times we 
fully understand it or are ready in all things to 
apply it. 

In another way also the Westminster Standards 
bear the mark of the times in which they were writ- 
ten. They speak with the accent of conviction. 
There is no trace of doubt or hesitancy in them. 
They express the faith, not of doubters or critical 



7G WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

investigators, at best uncertain of their conclusions, 
but of martyrs and confessors of whom the world was 
not worthy. That was an age of intense convictions ; 
truth was not an abstraction, but a solemn reality 
affecting the daily conduct of life. The doctrines 
and principles recorded in the Confession had been 
tested and purified in the fires of controversy and 
forged into shape by master hands. Call that age 
rude, coarse, and violent, if you will, and so it was in 
some respects ; but out of it has come a statement of 
high spiritual doctrine that still remains with us, like 
some pure spirit in paradise, purified by its sufferings 
and delivered from the weaknesses and infirmities of 
the mortal body in which it once dwelt. 

We are prone to boast of the marvellous progress 
and intellectual activity of this nineteenth century, 
and of the inheritance it is ready to transmit to the 
new one now dawning. But the period of which I 
speak will not suffer in comparison with it. Take as 
a central point the year 1620, in which Old Colony 
was founded on the shores of New England, and with 
a radius thirty years long describe a circle of time. 
Its circumference will hold a period that could easily 
be embraced within the memory of one man living 
in that age. Yet within it are men, and women, and 
events, that rank in historic importance with the most 
notable in our own century. On that stage of time 
may be seen a goodly company of the chief and ever 
to be remembered actors in the great drama of his- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 77 

tory. There are Queen Elizabeth, Cromwell, Pym, 
and Hampden among rulers and patriots; Spenser, 
Shakespeare, Benjamin Johnson, John Milton, Dry- 
den, and George Herbert among the poets; Hobbs, 
Lord Bacon, Locke, and Sir Isaac Newton among the 
philosophers ; Thos. Fuller, Lord Clarendon, Burton, 
and Isaac Walton among the writers; Richard 
Hooker, Ralph Cudworth, Tillotson, Barrows, John 
Howe, John Bunyan, John Owens, Richard Baxter, 
Jeremy Taylor, and Bishop Ussher among the preach- 
ers and theologians. It was an era of great men. 
When the time comes that we can discard as inferior 
productions " The Faery Queen," " Macbeth," " Para- 
dise Lost," " Pilgrim's Progress," the works of Bacon 
and Locke, and the writings of the Puritan theolog- 
ians, because they belong to the seventeenth century, 
then, but not till then, can we brand the Confession 
of Faith as inferior because it belongs to the same 
age. What changes and convulsions may be before 
us I am not wise enough to foretell ; but of this, in 
the light of history, I am confident : should ever the 
time come when the liberties of the people are as- 
sailed, either on the one side by civil and ecclesiasti- 
cal despotism, or on the other by anarchy and license, 
they will find no clearer declaration of their sacred 
rights, and no better rock on which to plant their feet 
in their defense, than the Westminster Confession of 
Faith. 




Umisaltw Cljamb.er, Westminster ^bbg. 



The Assembly met here after leaving Henry VH's 
Chapel towards the end of 1643. Principal Baillte in 
his Letters describes the Chamber as it was occupied by 
the Assembly. It is a fair room, well hung, wider at the 
end nearer the door, and on both sides are stages of seats 
with room for 100 or 120 persons. At the further end 
is a chair set on a frame a foot from the floor, for the 
Prolocutor, Dr. Twisse. Before it, on the floor, are two 
chairs for the Assessors, Dr. Burges and Mr. White. 
From these chairs through the length of the room stands 
a table at which the Scribes, Mr. Byfield and Mr. 
Roborough, sit. Along the table at Dr. Twisse s right 
hand are three or four ranks of seats; the Commissioners 
from the Church of Scotland occupy the lowest rank, and 
behind them are the members of the House of Commons. 
After a break the seats are continued beyond on the 
same side of the table and along its end, and from the 
fireplace to the end of the table at Dr. Twtsse's left hand. 
All these are occupied by the Divines. From the fire- 
place to the door, where there are no seats, chairs are 
set for the use of the Lords who were appointed to sit 
in the Assembly. In this room the great works of the 
Assembly were produced. 



THE STOEY OF THE WESTMINSTER 
ASSEMBLY. 

BY THE 

Eev. geokge norcross, d. d., 

PASTOR OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 
CARLISLE, PENNA. 



THE STORY OF THE WESTMINSTER 
ASSEMBLY. 

BY THE 

Eev. geokge norckoss, d. d., 

PASTOR OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 
CARLISLE, PENNA. 



One hundred years had passed away since England 
had broken with the pope. The leaven of God's pure 
Word had done its work. The nation was no longer 
satisfied with partial reforms. 

Of late the superstition, bigotry, and intolerance 
of Laud and his followers urging on the despotic 
spirit of the king had made the situation intolerable. 
The patience of the English people was completely 
exhausted. The patriotism of the nation was 
thoroughly aroused. It was evident to every man 
of Puritan instincts that prelacy must be abolished 
and the royal prerogative limited, or not a vestige of 
civil and religious liberty would be left to the English 
people. 

You have already heard to-day how they made the 
noble choice, how they elected a parliament inspired 

6 81 



82 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

with the best impulses of the English people for re- 
form, how they passed an act abolishing prelacy and 
thereby leveled to the ground " the stately and pom- 
pous fabric of Episcopacy," how they summoned an 
Assembly of Divines for the reformation of the 
Church, and invited the co-operation of Scotland in 
a work that might lead to uniformity in religion 
between the two kingdoms and thereby tend to secure 
the religious liberty of both. 

Actuated by that spirit of dissimulation which 
was so natural to the king, he had at first pretended 
to favor a conference of leading divines for the 
consideration of reforms. His subsequent conduct 
showed the hollowness of his professions. After many 
fruitless efforts to secure his co-operation the Parlia- 
ment decided to act without him. 

The English people were bent on radical reforms 
both in Church and State. Even the conservative 
House of Lords was deeply imbued with the Puritan 
tendency of the times. It is but fair to state that 
this whole movement began within the English 
Church itself. 

We are not to think of the Puritans as a sect of dis- 
senters ; they were in fact the evangelical clergy of 
the Church of England, with their friends among 
the laity. These Westminster divines with scarce 
an exception were all in Episcopal orders, educated 
in their own universities, and most of them graduates. 
If they were sick of the hierarchy and " weary of 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 83 

the skeleton of a Mass-Book," as Milton declared, it 
was because they had caught sight of a better way in 
the careful study of apostolic usage. 

I have been asked to tell the story of the West- 
minster Assembly. This naturally begins with the 
selection of the men who were to assist the Parliament 
in so grave a task as the reformation of the Church. 
The first choice of members for the Assembly showed 
the fairness and impartiality of Parliament. Their 
selection included men of all shades of opinion on 
the burning questions of the hour, except the advo- 
cates of Laud's Romanizing methods. 

In the original ordinance four bishops were named, 
and of the others called at the same time five became 
bishops afterward. The list of names in the origi- 
nal Ordinance amounts to 151 in all, namely, 10 
Lords and 20 Commoners, as lay-assessors, and 121 
divines. But of these only 69 appeared the first day, 
and generally the attendance seems to have ranged 
between 60 and 80. About 25 declined attending 
because the king forbade their meeting for the 
purposes mentioned in the parliamentary ordi- 
nance, and thus the Episcopal party was not as well 
represented in the Assembly as the Parliament had 
intended. 

The Assembly of Divines met in Westminster 
Abbey on the first day of July, 1643. It was opened 
with a sermon by the prolocutor, Rev. Win. Twisse, 
D. D., from the text, " I will not leave you comfort- 



84 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

less." The Assembly was then organized in the 
chapel of Henry VII., where its first sessions were 
held, but finding the place uncomfortably cold as the 
season advanced, the Assembly removed to the 
Jerusalem Chamber, a room of peculiar historic in- 
terest, "where," as Dean Stanley avers, "twice over 
the majestic language of the English Bible has been 
revised." Here the Assembly wrought patiently 
until its great work was accomplished. 

This meeting of divines was originally called to 
reform the Government and Liturgy of the Church 
of England and to vindicate and clear its doctrines 
"from all false aspersions and misconstructions." 
The real meaning of this last phrase was to so 
interpret or hedge the Thirty-nine Articles, as to 
render them incapable of the Romish gloss, which 
Laud in that day and Pusey and his associates 
in our own have imposed upon them. The indefi- 
niteness of statement which is sometimes vaunted 
as an excellence in the Thirty-nine Articles was 
evidently not so regarded by the leading spirits of 
that age. 

But the Civil War was making history fast, and 
the mission of the Assembly was soon extended and 
elevated into the preparation of a common Confession 
of Faith, Directory for Worship, Form of Govern- 
ment, and Public Catechism for the churches of the 
three kingdoms. This ideal of what was requisite 
for a thoroughly reformed church seems to have been 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 85 

first suggested by the General Assembly of the Scotch 
Church. 

In the conflict which the Parliament was waging 
against King Charles I. victory at first perched on 
the banners of the royal cause. Chastened by these 
reverses, the Parliament sought a closer alliance 
with the people and the Kirk of Scotland. Com- 
missioners from the English Parliament and from 
the Westminster Assembly, were sent to Edin- 
burgh to make friendly overtures and seek a closer 
alliance. The pathetic account which they gave of 
affairs in the English Church touched all hearts and 
is said to have drawn tears from the eyes of the sym- 
pathetic Scots. 

The intention of the English commissioners to 
Scotland was only to effect a civil league, but the 
Scotch leaders, knowing how much religion was in- 
volved in the quarrel, would hear of nothing short 
of a struggle for the purification of the Church and 
the union of the three kingdoms in a common faith. 
The result was the " Solemn League and Covenant," 
which became a religious and political bond between 
the two kingdoms and a potent factor in all the 
subsequent history of the times. 

The Solemn League and Covenant bound all who 
accepted its terms to sincerely and constantly seek 
the preservation of the reformed religion in the 
Church of Scotland, in doctrine, worship, discipline, 
and government ; the reformation of religion in the 

12 



86 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

kingdoms of England and Ireland " according to the 
Word of God and the example of the best reformed 
churches ; " and to an effort to bring the churches of 
the three kingdoms into uniformity "in religion, 
Confession of Faith, Form of Church Government, 
Directory for Worship, and Catechising." The Cov- 
enanters also pledged themselves to the extirpation 
of popery and prelacy. 

As a result of this union with the people and 
Kirk of Scotland, the Scottish Commissioners came to 
the Assembly, and though they did not accept a 
voting power in its deliberations, it is admitted by 
all that they exerted a very commanding influence 
on its final decisions. 

The most conspicuous character among them was 
Alexander Henderson, the author of the Solemn 
League and Covenant, and confessedly the greatest man 
in the Church of Scotland since the days of John Knox. 
Beside him stood Samuel Rutherfurd, both learned 
and saintly, one of the most impressive preachers of 
his time, who was twice invited to a theological chair 
in Holland. With them came George Gillespie, 
the darling of Scotland, the prince of disputants, who 
" with the fire of youth had the wisdom of age," and 
Robert Baillie, whose graphic " Letters " remain to 
this day the most vivid picture of the Assembly and 
its times in our possession. With these ministers 
were associated as ruling elders the venerable and 
eloquent Johnstone of Warriston and the youthful 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 87 

but courteous Lord Maitland, afterward the Earl of 
Lauderdale. Others were appointed who seem never 
to have taken their seats, but these six went to Lon- 
don and were duly accredited by act of Parliament 
and given seats in the Assembly. 

After more than a hundred years of American 
freedom, it may seem strange to many of us that the 
great Assembly of Westminster was only the creature 
of the Parliament. It was merely asked to give 
"humble advice" to the popular power that had 
called it into existence. It was denounced, repudi- 
ated, and threatened by the king, but there it ex- 
pected nothing. From the dominant Puritan party 
which had elected the Long Parliament, and from 
that patriotic body itself, the Assembly had the right 
to expect at least courtesy and reverence ; but the 
event proved that having grasped the unscriptural 
powers of the king as head of the Church, the Parlia- 
ment was slow to yield the point of its own infalli- 
bility. 

It is difficult for us to understand the religious 
ferment of the time. It was a period of spiritual 
revival, and the new wine of truth burst the old 
bottles of custom. The public mind had been 
greatly exasperated by the spiritual despotism of 
Laud, who had made himself hateful by his cruel- 
ties and ridiculous by his apings of popery. Unfor- 
tunately the reformation in England during the 
former century had been conducted by the court 



88 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

and the hierarchy. Its foundations had been laid 
along the lines of political expediency rather than 
scriptural teaching. But the light of the written 
Word had fallen on the conscience of the Church, and 
it was ill at ease. 

For long years the self-willed king had tried to 
rule without a parliament, but-finally he had come to 
the end of his tether in that direction. He had re- 
luctantly summoned a parliament, and that body 
proved to be " the most religious political assembly 
that ever met in or out of England." The popular 
will as expressed in the vote of the Long Parliament 
declared that the Church of England must be re- 
formed. 

It should never be forgotten that the Puritan 
movement was in the Church itself. The West- 
minster divines with a few exceptions had received 
Episcopal ordination, had been trained in the use of 
the Prayer Book, had submitted to the domination 
of the State in spiritual matters, had been taught 
that the king was the head of the Church, and that 
the highest duty of the subject was passive obedience. 
But the day of reckoning had come; the people pro- 
posed that all these high claims should be brought 
to the test of God's Word. Whatever could bear 
that test might stand, but all the rest must be brought 
into conformity with the divine pattern which is re- 
vealed in the holy oracles of God. 

It was in this spirit that every member of the 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 89 

Assembly was required to make the following vow or 
protestation before he could sit in the Assembly : 

"I do seriously promise and vow, in the presence 
of Almighty God, that in this Assembly, whereof 
I am a member, I will maintain nothing in point 
of doctrine but what I believe to be most agree- 
able to the Word of God; nor in point of disci- 
pline, but what I shall conceive to conduce most to 
the glory of God and the good and peace of his 
Church." 

This vow, which had almost the sanctity of an oath, 
"was appointed to be read afresh every Monday 
morning that its solemn influence might be constantly 
felt." 

And here we might well make a study of the 
leading men in the Assembly, but this has been as- 
signed to another speaker. 

The first work laid to their hand by Parliament 
was the revision of the Thirty-nine Articles. While 
the notes of members and the minutes of the As- 
sembly give us only a meager outline of the range 
of debate, we know that many questions raised were 
discussed with great minuteness and critical acumen, 
but with that prolixity which afterward so wearied 
the patience of the Scotch Commissioners, who con- 
fessed the ability of the speakers, but chafed under 
the " longsomeness " of their methods. 

It was duringthese debates that the Scotch Commis- 
sioners arrived and took their seats. Immediately 



90 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

after this, namely, on September 25, 1643, the Solemn 
League and Covenant was taken with all solemnity 
by both Houses of Parliament and the Assembly, in 
St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, a little church 
which still stands almost under the shadow of the 
great Abbey. Lightfoot gives a very graphic account 
of the scene in his " Journal." The oath to the Cov- 
enant was taken with uplifted hands, after which all 
went into the chancel and subscribed their names to 
this immortal document. 

But to resume with the work of the Assembly : 
before the 12th of October the Assembly had revised 
fifteen of the Articles and were proceeding with the 
sixteenth, when they were abruptly ordered by Parlia- 
ment to take in hand the Government and Liturgy 
of the Church. These early debates on the great 
fundamentals of religion did little more than dis- 
cover the spirit of the Assembl} 7 , show who were the 
talking members, and reveal the herculean task which 
the theological spirit of the times had laid upon 
these venerable fathers. 

With the consideration of Government and Wor- 
ship began what has been called "the war of the 
giants." On the subject of Doctrine the Assembly 
was practically a unit. These godly divines were all 
Calvinists. If there was an Arminian among them, 
he neither peeped nor muttered. It was the theo- 
centric doctrine of Paul, Augustine, Wycliffe, and 
Calvin, which inspired the people of England in all 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 91 

the days of their noble struggle for civil and religious 
liberty. 

The Church of England was in all its best elements 
as intensely Calvinistic as the Presbyterians of Scot- 
land or the Huguenots of the Continent. Therefore 
the Assembly had not been called together to formu- 
late a creed. Even the most zealous of the Puritans 
accepted the system taught in the Thirty-nine Arti- 
cles. They were asked to vindicate and clear the 
same " from all false aspersions and misconstructions." 
This they would have done, gladly, but " the logic of 
events" finally swept them forward into a much 
larger undertaking. They were destined to produce 
a system of doctrine, polity, and worship which after 
two hundred and fifty years of turmoil and criticism 
still needs but little revision. 

It was, however, when they approached the subject 
of Church Government that differences of opinion 
became emphatic. This diversity ran all the way 
from Episcopacy on the one hand to Independency 
on the other. Nine-tenths of the whole body were at 
heart Presbyterians, many were willing to go the 
whole length of a jure divino claim for Presbytery, 
but a large minority only insisted that the system is 
scriptural and expedient, while they were willing to 
say that neither papacy, prelacy, nor independency 
is to be found in the Bible. 

With singular unanimity the Reformers had 
reached the conclusion that Presbytery was the govern- 



92 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

ment established by the apostles in the New Testa- 
ment Church. The overwhelming majority of the 
Westminster fathers under the sanction of an oath 
professed the same conclusion. But when did all 
the Church see eye to eve on such a question? 

It has been customary to describe the Westminster 
Assembly as made up of three parties, the Presbyter- 
ians, the Independents, and the Erastians. 

The Presbyterians were in the majority and gained 
strength as the discussion advanced. Their scheme 
is based on the New Testament principle that bishops 
and presbyters are identical, and that the Church is 
a unit, and has the right of self-government by a 
series of representative judicatories composed of 
clerical and lay members. The system is republican 
in spirit, avoiding the perils of democracy on the one 
hand, and the evils of oligarchy on the other. It had 
been adopted in the Reformed Churches on the Con- 
tinent where it was possible, and had been worked 
for nearly a hundred years in Scotland, where it had 
recently enjoyed a signal triumph. 

For twelve years England had been governed 
without a parliament. The people now proposed to 
be heard. Men were walking the streets of London 
with noses slit and ears cropped, the marks of the 
paternal interest of Archbishop Laud in the thorough 
discipline of his spiritual children. The people had 
made up their minds to be done forever with prelati- 
cal pretensions. Even before the Assembly met the 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 93 

bishops had been turned out of the House of Lords, 
a measure to which the king had given his reluctant 
consent. The English people naturally turned to the 
other Reformed Churches for their model, and these 
Churches were confessedly Presbyterian. 

In Scotland the Presbyterian Church had shown 
itself the friend of the people, and had presented a 
bold front to the despotic spirit of the king and the 
half-popish system of the cruel and bigoted Laud. 
A people who were smarting under the tyranny of 
the Star Chamber and Bishop's Courts of High Com- 
mission, were naturally favorable to a system in which 
the people had a voice. The Assembly proved to be 
overwhelmingly Presbyterian. 

A second party was the Independents. These were 
few in number, but ably led by Dr. Thomas Godwin 
and the Rev. Philip Nye. They were called " the five 
dissenting brethren " by the Presbyterians, from the 
plausible " Apologetical Narration " which they offered 
to Parliament, after they had made a long and fac- 
tious opposition to the majority of the Assembly. 

Some of these brethren had been driven to Holland 
by the spiritual despotism of Laud, and their ex- 
perience while in exile with single congregations of 
their expatriated countrymen, led them to attach 
undue importance to an independent church, and 
they were not in sympathy with the wider plans 
of those who sought for national uniformity. 

Though never numbering more than twelve mem- 



4 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

bers, the Independents were able to retard the final 
decision of the Assembly, carry on an intrigue with 
Cromwell and the army, foster the growth of fanatical 
sectaries in the country, and finally defeat the prac- 
tical adoption of Presbytery in England. Perhaps the 
explanation is to be found in the words of Dr. Schaff: 
" Independency ... is preferred by the English 
mind because it comes nearer to Episcopacy, in 
making each pastor a bishop in his own congre- 
gation." 

It is often claimed by their descendants that the 
Independents were the first to advocate toleration. 
But to this it may be replied that they were in the 
minority, and were only asking to be let alone and 
to go on with their own divisive schemes, and that 
when they established their system in New England 
they made it very uncomfortable for the Quakers, 
Baptists, and others who differed with them. The 
sweet spirit of toleration was not very well under- 
stood in that age by any party ; and no one who 
takes the trouble to study the long and weary de- 
bates of the Assembly will conclude that the Inde- 
pendents had a monopoly of the meekness and charity 
there exhibited. 

A third party in the Assembly was the Erastian, 
so called from Erastus, a physician of Heidelberg, 
and later of Basel, who wrote a book which was pub- 
lished after his death, in which he denied the right 
of church officers to excommunicate. These men dis- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 95 

sented from the grand proposition of the Assembly, 
that, " The Lord Jesus, as King and Head of His 
Church, hath therein appointed a government in 
the hand of Church-officers, distinct from the Civil 
Magistrate." On the contrary, they wished to make 
the Church only a department of the State, and 
maintained that all Church government ought to 
be in the hands of the civil rulers. They denied 
that any particular form of Church government 
was prescribed in the New Testament, and claimed 
for the State the right to establish such form as might 
seem most expedient. 

Only two ministers, Dr. Lightfoot and Mr. Coleman, 
were decidedly Erastians, but a considerable number 
of the lay-assessors, chiefly lawyers, were advocates 
of this secular policy. Insignificant as this party 
was in point of numbers, it derived importance from 
the reputation for Hebrew and rabbinical learning 
enjoyed by some of its members — Lightfoot, Coleman, 
and " the learned Selden " — and still more from the 
powerful support the party received from Parliament, 
most of whom, according to Baillie, were "down- 
right Erastians." " The pope and the king," says 
this lively chronicler, " were never more earnest for 
the headship of the Church than the plurality of 
this Parliament." 

The evils of spiritual despotism were so many and 
so flagrant in that age, that it is not strange many 
sought the remedy in the subjection of the Church 



96 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

to the State. This was the practical solution of all 
their difficulties at the time of the Restoration, when 
Charles II. was allowed to place his licentious foot on 
the neck of the prostrate Church. But such a settle- 
ment never lasts, and the English Church of this 
century has been passing through the convulsions of 
revolution, simply because her sons to-day are not 
willing to abide by the Erastian principles which 
satisfied their fathers in the middle of the 17th 
century. The whole Anglo-Catholic movement of 
our times began in a protest against the subjection 
of the Church of Christ to the domination of Csesar. 
And here a loyal Presbyterian could join hands with 
John Henry Newman and the Oxford school ; but 
we would soon have to part company when they 
start toward Rome to find spiritual independence. 
It is poor policy to try to escape from one usurpation 
by falling into another and a worse one. 

Time will not permit a full account of the several 
steps which led to the adoption of the " Form of 
Government " as it finally passed the Assembly. Its 
Presbyterian principles had to run the gauntlet be- 
tween the Independents and the Erastians. The 
debates were long and tough. Every premise was 
measured and every word in definition was weighed ; 
every argument was sifted and every proof-text was 
traced back through the versions to the original 
Scriptures. There were honest difficulties to be met 
and captious objections to be answered. But finally 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 97 

the system was painfully wrought out and the proof- 
texts selected and the Form of Church Government 
and Directory for Ordination was laid before Parlia- 
ment. As a whole, it never was adopted by the civil 
authority of England, but on February 10, 1645, it 
was accepted and adopted by the General Assembly 
of the Scotch Church. 

Another subject submitted to the Assembly at the 
same time was that of "Liturgy." The "Direc- 
tory for Public Worship " was the first of the formu- 
laries which the Westminster fathers prepared and 
completed according to the terms of their Solemn 
League and Covenant. The promptness with which 
this work was accomplished points significantly to 
the fact that here the Westminster divines were 
far more united than on the subject of church 
government. 

Whatever may have been the theoretical views of 
these men as to the lawfulness of an optional liturgy 
leaving room for free prayer, all were prepared in the 
interest of peace and Christian Union " to lay aside 
the former liturgy, with the many rites and ceremo- 
nies formerly used in the worship of God," and adopt 
a simple Directory as a guide and help to the minister 
in the various parts of public worship. 

The privilege of free prayer was greatly appre- 
ciated at this time, and wonderful gifts in that direc- 
tion were soon discovered among the members. We 
smile at the mention of prayers one or two hours 

7 



98 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

long, but we should remember that these men were 
exulting in a new-found liberty, and rejoicing that 
they were no longer " under tutors and governors " 
when approaching "the throne of grace." 

And so, though there were keen debates about 
certain details — as to what profession of faith should 
be exacted from a parent when presenting his child 
for baptism ; as to the qualifications to be required 
of those admitted to the sealing ordinances of the 
Church, and as to the exact position to be taken in 
the act of observing the Lord's Supper ; yet the work 
of preparing the Directory for Worship went on with 
far greater harmony than that of settling the Form 
of Church Government, or agreeing as to the princi- 
ples and methods of Ordination. 

That the Prayer Book was to be laid aside was 
evidently a foregone conclusion from the beginning. 
The Preface to the Directory, which is still retained 
in the standards of the Scotch and Irish Churches, 
but has been revised out of our American Book, 
argues stoutly against the use of a liturgy. 

That Preface begins by conceding that "in the 
beginning of the blessed reformation our wise and 
pious ancestors" had done much to correct many 
things which " by the Word " they had " discovered 
to be vain, erroneous, superstitious, and idolatrous in 
the public worship of God." It goes on to recite some 
of the benefits which had come to the Church in the 
Book of Common Prayer — that " the mass and the 



. . ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 99 

rest of the Latin service " had been removed, that 
"the public worship was celebrated in our own 
tongue," and that many of the common people had 
received the benefit of " hearing the Scriptures read 
in their own language." It confesses that these 
things had caused " many godly and learned men to 
rejoice much in the Book of Common Prayer." 

But if all this is heartily admitted, it is only to 
prepare the way for the strong indictment against 
" the Service Book " which follows. The Westminster 
fathers testify that "long and sad experience hath 
made it manifest that the liturgy used in the Church 
of England (notwithstanding all the pains and relig- 
ious intentions of the compilers of it) hath proved an 
offence, not only to many of the godly at home, but 
also to the reformed churches abroad." They go on 
to assert that the Prayer Book contains " many un- 
profitable and burdensome ceremonies," that its 
glorification by " the prelates and their faction " had 
been a "great hindrance to the preaching of the 
Word," that of late in some places, it had pushed 
preaching out as "unnecessary, or, at best, as far in- 
ferior to the reading of common prayer," and that 
joining in this service had been made "no better than 
an idol by many ignorant and superstitious people." 

All this was bad enough, but the gravest objection 
was against the system itself. They testified " that 
the liturgy hath been a great means ... to make 
and increase an idle and unedifying ministry, which 



100 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

contented itself with set forms made to their hands 
by others, without putting forth themselves to exer- 
cise the gift of prayer, with which our Lord Jesus 
Christ pleaseth to furnish all his servants whom he 
calls to that office." 

In summing up their argument against the Prayer 
Book, they declare that " upon these and many the 
like weighty considerations in reference to the whole 
book in general, and because of diverse particulars 
contained in it ... we have . . . resolved to lay 
aside the former liturgy, with the many rites and 
ceremonies formerly used in the worship of God, and 
have agreed upon this following Directory for all the 
parts of public worship." 

This radical reformation has controlled the 
churches accepting the Westminster Standards ever 
since. From that day to this the Presbyterian Church 
has been non-liturgical. At the time of the Restora- 
tion, the Presbyterian party seemed to be willing, for 
the sake of peace, to make some concessions to the 
lovers of the Prayer Book ; but when they were com- 
pelled to go out from the Established Church, the 
Non-Conformists did not make a revised Prayer Book 
for themselves. On the contrary, they remained true 
to" the position of the Westminster Assembly, and 
practised the liberty of free prayer. The same is 
true of the American Church. Here and there a 
voice may have been raised in deprecation of a care- 
less and perfunctory service of prayer in Presbyterian 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 101 

worship ; here and there a formalist may have pro- 
posed a return to liturgical methods, but the Church 
has remained firm. The apostolic doctrine that the 
people of God are " a royal priesthood " full of the 
Holy Ghost and of power to do their own praying, has 
remained our birthright as Presbyterians to this day. 

Perhaps before leaving this subject of worship a 
word should be said concerning the metrical version 
of the Psalms, which as " altered and amended " was 
recommended " to be publicly sung." 

Mr. Francis Rous was a member of Parliament 
and a lay-assessor in the Assembly. His metrical 
version of the Psalter was referred to the Assembly 
for examination and approval. It was carefully read 
in the public sessions of the body, and after receiving 
some emendations, was recommended as "useful and 
profitable to the Church." The House of Commons 
in consequence resolved " that this Book of Psalms 
set forth by Mr. Rous, and perused by the Assembly 
of Divines, be forthwith printed." 

As is well known, this version became very dear to 
the Churches of Scotland, and a badge of orthodoxy 
to many of their successors in America. It is now 
almost wholly supplanted in the Churches of this 
country, but people are still living who love and 
cherish the rugged strength of Rous's version. 

The last subject of general importance on which 
the labors of the Assembly were expended was a 
" Public Catechism." There had been no end of 



102 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

private catechisms, for the careful indoctrination of 
the young was a thought familiar and grateful to the 
Puritan mind. 

All the reformers had shown their sense of its im- 
portance either by writing catechisms or making a 
diligent use of those composed by others. It is not 
generally known how much thought and effort had 
been expended already in England on the subject of 
catechetical instruction. Dr. Mitchell, who has made 
a study of the Westminster Assembly and its times, 
declares as to the "floods" of catechisms already 
published by the Puritans, that their name was 
legion. 

The subject of a catechism was one of the first to 
receive the attention of the Assembly, and as this 
part of their work was the last to be finished, it is 
but fair to conclude that the task was found to be one 
of considerable difficulty. But it can be justly said, 
in view of the result, that here the Westminster 
divines attained their greatest triumph. The Shorter 
Catechism, which was finished last, is the consummate 
flower of all their labors. 

The whole subject seems to have been first con- 
sidered by a committee of which the " gracious and 
learned little Palmer," as Baillie calls him, was the 
chairman. This Herbert Palmer had the reputation 
of being " the best catechist in England." He was 
the author of a catechism which had gone through 
several editions, and he had a peculiar method of 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 103 

his own to which he was much attached, and which 
seems to have won the approval of the Scotch Com- 
missioners, though it met with opposition in the 
Assembly. Months and years were spent at the task, 
but still the result was unsatisfactory. If ever George 
Gillespie was asked to pray for light and help in the 
definition of God, as a well-known tradition reports, 
it must have been during these labors ; for he was in 
his grave when the Shorter Catechism was composed. 
Finally, when the work seemed almost accomplished, 
the Assembly fell into such " endless janglings about 
both the method and the matter," says Baillie, " that 
all think it will be longsome work." 

The expedient of composing two catechisms was 
a thought which dawned slowly on the minds of the 
Assembly. In a letter of the Scotch Commissioners 
to their own Church which bears evidence of being 
from the hand of Rutherfurd, they say : " The Assem- 
bly of Divines, after they had made some progress 
in the catechism which was brought in to them from 
their committee, and having found it very difficult 
to satisfy themselves or the world with one form of 
catechism, or to dress up milk and meat both in one 
dish, have, after second thoughts, recommitted the 
work, that two forms of catechism may be prepared, 
one more exact and comprehensive; another more 
easie and short for new beginners." And so it was 
arranged that we have become the heirs of a Larger 
and a Shorter Catechism. 



104 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

The definitions of the Larger Catechism are in 
a great measure abridged from the Confession of 
Faith, though traces of matter derived from other 
sources may be found in it. This monumental work 
was finished October 15, 1647, and shortly after 
was carried up to the two Houses by the prolocutor 
and the whole Assembly, when they were formally 
thanked " for their great labor and pains in compiling 
this Long Catechism." 

The Shorter Catechism was not composed till after 
the Larger one had been virtually completed. On 
the 5th of August, 1647, it was resolved that the 
Shorter Catechism should be taken in hand "by a 
committee now to be chosen." Mr. Herbert Palmer 
was made the convener of this committee, of which 
the prolocutor was nominally the chairman. 

As the work on this, " the ripest fruit of the Assem- 
bly's thought and experience," was mainly done in 
committee, we cannot trace the various steps by 
which it was brought to its present perfection. But 
this we do know, that Mr. Palmer died soon after 
the appointment of the committee, that Henderson 
and Gillespie had both gone home to Scotland and 
there passed to their reward, and that Baillie also 
had returned and was busy with his professorship 
in Glasgow. Only Rutherfurd remained, and he was 
longing to be released, as he " did not think the elab- 
oration of this catechism of sufficient importance to 
detain him from his college and his flock at St. 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 105 

Andrews." But he was persuaded to remain until it 
had been reported to the Assembly, when he took his 
final leave. Before his departure he suggested that 
a record be made in the "Scribe's Books," of the 
fact that the Assembly had enjoyed the assistance 
of the Commissioners from the Church of Scotland, 
during all the time spent in debating and perfecting 
the four things mentioned in the Covenant, viz., a 
Directory for Worship, a Confession of Faith, a Form 
of Church Government, and a Catechism. The sug- 
gestion was approved by the House, and the record 
w T as made in very complimentary terms. 

The Shorter Catechism was finally finished and 
the great work of the Assembly was done, but it was 
not formally dissolved. On February 22, 1649, the 
Assembly was changed into a committee for conduct- 
ing the trial and examination of ministers. Many 
of the members had gone home, but those who 
remained continued to act as a Church Court for 
the conduct of matters ecclesiastical, subject to the 
will of Parliament. 

As the Parliament never did accept those parts 
of the Confession of Faith which condemned Eras- 
tianism, the Presbyterians were not willing to set up 
Presbyteries and Synods which would be shorn of 
all their Scriptural powers, and as neither party 
would yield, there was a dead-lock and it was a time 
of great confusion. Prelacy had been abolished by 
law, the Prayer Book had been laid aside by act of 



106 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

Parliament, the old system was under the ban of the 
acting government, but Presbyteries and Synods were 
not organized ; and finally the heavy hand of the 
dictator, Cromwell, cut the Gordian knot by abolish- 
ing the Parliament, and the Assembly ceased to exist 
when that popular branch of the government thus 
was set aside by a military despotism ; for such the 
Protectorate of Cromwell was, however good it may 
have been for the common weal of Englishmen. 

The Assembly had been lectured and bullied by 
the Parliament, because it would not say that the 
Church is merely a creature of civil government and 
a department of the State, but to their glory it can be 
affirmed, that the Westminster fathers never quailed 
nor betrayed the truth as they understood it. With 
heroic fortitude they had braved the wrath of the 
king and the hierarchy when at first they attended 
on the summons of the Parliament. With endless 
patience they listened to the arguments of Independ- 
ents and Erastians, who combined to defeat the will 
of the majority. In dignified silence they endured 
the pettifogging taunts of Selden's "Nine Queries" 
respecting the jure divino rights of the Church. In 
devout reliance on divine assistance they fasted and 
prayed and wrought and waited for light from on 
high, and for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. With 
laborious painstaking they searched the Scriptures 
to find the whole counsel of God on the questions 
submitted to them for their " humble advice." They 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 107 

did not " make haste," but being assembled in solemn 
session " five years, six months, and twenty-two days," 
they left on record as the result of their labors, the 
most remarkable symbols in the possession of the 
Christian Church. 



FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES OF THE 

WESTMINSTER CONFESSION 
AND CATECHISMS. 

BY THE 

Kev. JAMES D. MOFFAT, D. D., LL.D., 

PRESIDENT WASHINGTON AND JEFFERSON COLLEGE, 
WASHINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA. 



FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES OF THE WEST- 
MINSTER CONFESSION AND CATECHISMS. 

BY THE 

Rev. JAMES D. MOFFAT, D. D., LL. D., 

PRESIDENT WASHINGTON AND JEFFERSON COLLEGE, 
WASHINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Moderator, Fathers and Brethren: 

If the Westminster standards were new to the 
world, my task would require me to set forth in 
proper order and in due proportion the several 
articles of faith defined in them; but after two 
hundred and fifty years of public proclamation, no 
such recital in detail can be needed — much less can 
it be needed before a representative body of Presby- 
terians. We may therefore confine our attention 
somewhat strictly to those doctrines which may be 
considered distinctive or characteristic. 

We ought not, however, to allow ourselves to over- 
look the fact that our points of agreement with other 
Protestant Evangelical churches are more numerous 
and more valuable than the points wherein we differ 
from them. In a general way, it may be said that 
the Westminister divines aimed at embodying in 

111 



112 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

their creed pretty much all that was of an affirma- 
tive character in all the creeds of Christendom which 
were then formulated. 

Approaching now that Calvinistic system which is 
embodied in our standards, I recall two mathematical 
figures which have been employed to illustrate how 
our distinctive doctrines have been brought together 
into a system. It was an opponent of our system, a 
prominent minister of a sister church, who likened 
our system to a circle, inasmuch as the several doc- 
trines are held firmly together by their common 
relationship to the doctrine of divine sovereignty. 
And he added, that it is useless to try to break that 
circle, held together by the rigid logic by which its 
several parts are connected with the undeniable 
supremacy of God. " If you do not wish to accept 
it as a whole, you must simply ignore it, or cast it 
aside as a whole. Arrange your doctrines in your 
own way — make the evangelical system grow out of 
the love of God — or construct a system of theology 
that shall be Christocentric, and let the people of the 
world make their choice between your system, and 
the old, unbroken, unbreakable Calvinistic system." 

Such a mode of representing our system — which 
I give only in substance — was very gratifying at the 
time, as indicating a loss of confidence on the part 
of an opponent in the wisdom of a direct attack upon 
our system. It was, moreover, generally regarded as 
a satisfactory general description of our system of 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 113 

doctrine as having its center and bond of union in 
the doctrine of God's sovereignty. 

But another man of prominence, speaking from 
within the Presbyterian fold, proposed amendment, 
by suggesting that our system may better be symbol- 
ized by the ellipse. The circle has a single center ; 
the ellipse has two foci. The Westminster Calvinism 
regards the supremacy of God and the freedom of 
man as complemental truths, and is as loyal to the 
latter doctrine as to the former one. 

Both these mathematical symbols are after all but 
symbols, each having its own appropriateness, and 
both having value as setting forth our peculiar system 
for general view. 

From one point of view, however, it will not do to 
represent man's freedom as a co-ordinate with God's 
sovereignty, for the freedom of man is the gift of the 
sovereign God. Man possesses only so much freedom 
as God has seen fit to bestow upon him. God's 
supremacy is, therefore, a primary fact, and man's free- 
dom wholly dependent on it. The one doctrine is at 
the center, and the other belongs to the circum- 
ference. 

But from another point of view, we may treat the 
two doctrines as side by side. Since God has given 
freedom, it is now as truly a fact to be reckoned with 
as the divine sovereignty. No interpretation can 
properly be put upon the one that logically compels 
us to ignore or tone down the other fact. God him- 



114 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

self respects his own gift, and never exercises his 
sovereign power in any way to break down that free- 
dom. The Confession of Faith expressly teaches that 
God's sovereignty is not of a kind to " offer any violence 
to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contin- 
gency of second causes taken away, but rather estab- 
lished." Within the realm of theological thought 
there is no fact more remarkable than the respect 
which the sovereign God has ever shown to man's 
limited freedom. It is indeed a limited freedom 
(commensurate at least with human responsibility), 
but within this God-given limit man himself is a 
sovereign. God has so far respected his own gift to 
man that he would not prevent the introduction of 
sin in our world ; nor will he interpose to cast it out 
by any exercise of power inconsistent with man's 
freedom ; and men who prefer to sin may even do so 
eternally. 

Whilst, therefore, it is certainly Calvinistic to put 
the doctrine of divine sovereignty at the center as 
the ultimate source of everything else that we value, 
it is just as good Calvinism to put alongside of it 
the doctrine of human freedom, when once we have 
accounted for it as God's gift, and determined its 
limitations as God has ordained them ; and it is our 
right — indeed, it is our duty — to insist upon it that 
all interpretations and applications of Calvinistic 
doctrines, by friend or foe, shall recognize the fact 
that the two are now co-ordinate. Considered meta- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 115 

physically, or in their origin, God's sovereignty is 
primal; man's freedom derived and limited. Con- 
sidered phenomenally, with reference to the existing 
order, one fact is just as stubborn as the other, and 
neither one can be ignored without misconception 
resulting. 

After this general view of our system of doctrine, 
let us consider its principal details. I think it can 
be shown that every distinctive doctrine of our sys- 
tem grows out of the endeavor of the Westminster 
Assembly to present the character of God to the in- 
telligent world as the one complete and perfect 
being. 

As far as the elements properly belonging to the 
idea of sovereignty are concerned, there is entire 
agreement among all theists. That God is the ulti- 
mate source of all authority, that he is independent in 
the exercise of his authority and power, and that 
there is no being to whom he is accountable for the 
ultimate issue of his acts, cannot be doubted by any 
one who believes in his existence and attaches any 
meaning to the term God. But in much of our theo- 
logical discussion of God's sovereignty, and in much 
of the popular conception as to what we do believe, 
there can be no doubt that undue prominence has 
been given to the will of God. It has been very com- 
mon to speak of the sovereign will of God, and so to 
magnify the mere element of will, the sheer power or 
authority, as to create feelings of repugnance on the 



116 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

part of many who reject our creed, and induce in 
those who still accept it a kind of fatalistic submis- 
sion to the inevitable. Under this false emphasis the 
will of God has taken on the aspect of wilfulness, and 
the independence of God has been distorted into an 
indifference as to what may be the effect of his de- 
crees upon his creatures. The true doctrine, which 
attributes sovereignty to God's person, considered in 
its entirety, thus becomes narrowed to a doctrine 
ascribing sovereignty to a personified power, and 
throws open the way to the fear or belief that this 
power is often arbitrarily or capriciously exercised. 
It is possible to submit to the will of God, considered 
as mere power or authority ; but if we are to acqui- 
esce in that will, it will have to appear either to our 
reason or our faith as more than authority, as an 
expression of wisdom and goodness. 

The false conception of Calvinism, which has grown 
up in the minds of so many Christian people, and 
even in the case of many who have been trained in 
Presbyterian families, is largely due to a defective 
psychology belonging to the past centuries and only 
now passing away. It is the psychology which has 
distinguished somewhat too sharply between the 
faculties of intellect, sensibility, and will. It is true, 
indeed, that the older psychologists held firmly to 
the unity and simplicity of the soul, and did not 
intend to represent the faculties as distinct organs of 
mind ; but the three so-called faculties were treated 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 117 

separately and the operations of each described with 
little or no reference to those of the other faculties, so 
that it is not very strange that there should be an 
almost irresistible tendency to think of each faculty 
as independent in its activity. Free will has become 
almost a household term, and even in theological dis- 
cussion is often so employed as to suggest a measure 
of independence of intellect and emotion quite incon- 
sistent with the facts of consciousness. In the later 
psychology, knowing, feeling, and willing are only 
functions of the soul : nor are they separate and inde- 
pendent functions. They are interdependent. If any 
real state of mind when active be considered, all three 
of these functions will invariably be represented; 
and our only way of distinguishing one state of mind 
from another is by the fact that one function seems to 
be more prominent than the others. Thus in the ideal 
student's mind knowing is predominant, but his in- 
tense study is due to the activity of his will, and this 
activity is due to the power of his emotional nature 
stimulated by the free play of his intellectual powers. 
In the ideal business man will may be predominant, 
but his activity and persistence in the prosecution of 
his business are due to the fact that his heart is in 
the work, and has set both intellect and will to work. 
Will, in its normal state, is never alone, never free 
from the influence of the character of him who 
exerts it. Willing is the function of personality, and 
with full knowledge on our part always indicates the 



118 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

character of him whose willing it is, and indicates 
that character because it is determined by it. 

With these modern distinctions in view, we may 
object to the application of the term sovereign to the 
will of God, on the ground that it is the person of 
God which is sovereign. His will cannot fail to 
manifest his character, for what God knows and how 
God feels, must be thought of as lying back of and 
determining all the choices, purposes, and activities 
of his will. It is the sovereignty and supremacy of 
God, the perfect being, the complete person, combin- 
ing harmoniously in his person all the excellencies 
and perfections which can be conceived as belonging 
to personality, which Calvinism makes central in its 
teachings, and no mere almightiness and authority. 

I know there are a few phrases in our Confession 
which seem to lend support to the false view I have 
been criticizing, but they are to be interpreted in the 
light of the fact that our Confession invariably traces 
God's decrees and acts, not merely to his will, but to 
some element of his character, to his goodness, to his 
love, to his justice, to his grace. These are all im- 
pulses of his perfect nature, which draw him on to 
gratify them and thus give rise to his eternal decrees 
and his works in time. 

It is our contention that analysis of the perfect 
character of God will give us the basis of every dis- 
tinctive doctrine of our Calvinistic system. Is God a 
rational being? Is he completely rational; has rea- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 119 

son in him reached its highest conceivable perfection ? 
Then he must be thought of by us as looking ahead, 
planning the future, foreseeing every possible con- 
tingency. He must work according to plan. He 
must have some sufficient end in view. And his 
plan must embrace every detail ; there can be no 
after-thoughts, no unforeseen contingencies arising to 
necessitate repair or change of purpose. We cannot 
conceive of the ruler of this universe, who is perfect 
as a ruler, being surprised by the occurrence of some 
unforeseen events. But this is universal predestina- 
tion, a doctrine designed to set forth the completeness 
in all respects with which God governs his world and 
directs the course of its progress. 

Is there in God a combination of varied powers? 
Is his character broad enough to include every trait 
of personality which we find entering into human 
personality, with the proviso that each trait in God's 
personality has reached its highest stage of perfec- 
tion? Surely no one can withhold an affirmative 
answer to these questions. Then it must be held to 
be extremely probable that there will be some variety 
of mode in God's dealing with men. 

As he is righteous, there can be no doubt of his 
dealing justly with all, holy and sinful alike. But 
as God is good, kind, loving, these impulses must also 
move him to go beyond the demands of justice, where 
the law of righteousness does not forbid. And as 
God is gracious, it is not strange that he should seek 



120 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

and find a way of helping and benefiting the un- 
worthy. Since then our Calvinism has ever em- 
phasized the evangelical doctrine that all men are 
to be dealt with either according to the principles 
of law or according to the principles of grace; 
and that each adult must make his own choice 
as to whether his merits and demerits shall be con- 
sidered, or wholly disregarded in order that he may 
rely on grace alone ; we have but carried our concep- 
tion of God's character into our interpretation of his 
Word and our evangelistic work. 

It may be going too far to say that our church has 
been more loyal than others to the doctrine of the 
Atonement. But certainly Westminster Calvinism 
has wavered less under the assaults of rationalism on 
this doctrine than many others. The stiffest modes 
of stating the doctrine have found defenders in our 
church, and zeal for this fundamental truth may 
have carried some theologians too far. But the 
powerful hold the doctrine has maintained upon men 
loyal to the Westminister Confession has been due, 
not only to the clearness and earnestness with which 
the doctrine is set forth in the Scriptures, but also to 
its close connection in our minds with the character 
of God as we conceive it. Believing as we do that 
God is perfectly righteous, we cannot think of him 
as otherwise than infinitely more earnest than we 
can be in his approval of all right-doing and his dis- 
approval of all wrong-doing. Nor can we conceive 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 121 

of him as failing in any degree to express his ap- 
proval and his disapproval in his treatment of the good 
or the evil agents. Therefore it is simply inconceiv- 
able to us, when we fix our thought on the perfect 
character of God, that he should ever forgive a sin- 
gle sin without an adequate expression of his disap- 
proval of it. This expression we find in the death 
of Jesus Christ, and nowhere else can we even look 
for it. 

But as this expression would be useless if sin- 
ful men did not voluntarily seek forgiveness under 
it, fairness to Christ demanded that a great multitude 
of human beings should somehow be induced to put 
themselves under the operations of God's grace. But 
this is the doctrine of election. It grows out of the 
conviction that God is both righteous and loving, the 
former impelling him to secure to Jesus a sufficient 
reward, and the latter impelling him to secure the 
blessings of the Atonement to a great multitude, 
whom no man can number. It is the unmistakable 
fact that God brings more gracious influences to bear 
on some men than on others to lead them to accept 
Christ as their personal Saviour, which lies at the 
basis of, and receives explanation in, the doctrine of 
election. 

If now we combine with God's love his respect for 
human freedom, we lay the foundation for the cor- 
relative doctrine of pretention. I know how easy it 
is to present these correlative doctrines so as to create 



122 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

an impression that God's ways with men are not 
equal. It may even be difficult for many who accept 
the doctrines because they are taught in the Scrip- 
tures, to keep out of the mind the suspicion that God 
is partial in a way we do not tolerate in our fellow- 
men. And I confess I know of no way to find relief 
from a suspicion no one of us cares to entertain, except 
by putting the doctrine of human freedom alongside 
that of divine sovereignty, and insisting that it be 
given due weight. If electing grace is not of a char- 
acter to abridge freedom, and it certainly is not, then 
pretention may be connected with God's respect for 
his own gift, and this conclusion follows: the elect 
are willing to be saved by grace, and the non-elect 
are either unwilling to be saved from sin or are not 
willing to be saved by grace. The line that divides the 
adult world into the two classes of elect and non-elect, 
corresponds exactly to the line that divides that same 
world into the willing and the unwilling. If we are 
pressed to explain how it comes about that some are 
willing and others are unwilling, we may reply that 
each individual case may furnish its own reasons, 
which do not admit of generalization. Individual 
experiences differ both before and after acceptance 
of Christ, and each man may give some account of 
his own choices. Or we may fall back upon a strictly 
Christian and philosophical agnosticism. We cannot 
lift ourselves outside of our created universe and take 
our stand beside God's throne and explain, as from 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 123 

God's point of view, the details of his government of 
free, intelligent beings. It is enough for us to know 
that for every act of his a sufficient reason can be 
found in his own perfections, and it is folly and sin 
for us to scale down the loftiest conception of his 
character we can form or entertain, in order to make 
our earthly life somewhat freer from mystery. 

It is sometimes objected to our Confession that it 
does not give sufficient prominence to the love of 
God. And it has been questioned whether a thor- 
oughgoing Calvinist can love the God he pictures to 
his mind. I shall not reply to this question by citing 
the multitudes, who, by patient endurance of perse- 
cutions, and perseverance in missionary and philan- 
thropic labor, have given practical proofs of their 
love of God. It cannot be doubted that these mar- 
tyrs and missionaries of the past, nerved themselves 
to endurance and fidelity by their hearty acceptance 
of our fundamental doctrines. There may be more 
need to show the intimate, but not very apparent, 
connection which exists between the Westminster 
conception of God and a practical and deep-seated 
love of God. You cannot induce men to love God 
by giving them verbal descriptions of his love, how- 
ever poetic your phraseology may be. There is a way 
of talking about God's love that is for most men too 
sentimental to be effective. It is not mere love which 
men crave, and men do not value it because of its 
intensity. All love owes its value to the personality 



124 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

which lies back of it. No one cares for the love of 
any being whom he does not respect. True love may 
be generally defined as an impulse to use one's 
powers for the benefit of another person. So far as 
this is a proper definition, it makes apparent that 
the value of any love will be determined by the per- 
sonal powers which are devoted to our benefit, and 
the motive and character of the person who is thus 
willing to employ his powers in our behalf. We 
actually turn away from the proffered love of mean 
and low and vicious natures. We prefer the hatred 
of the devil to his love, however intense it might be. 
The value therefore of the simple proclamation that 
God loves us lies in the fact that it is God, whose 
powers are perfect and whose character is attractive, 
who is declared to love. It is not necessary that a 
confession dwell upon the love, if it sets before us 
clearly and fully the excellencies and perfections of 
his character. Let there be chapters which set be- 
fore us his wisdom, power, righteousness, providence, 
and provisions for the salvation of sinners, if there be 
but a single clause — "God is love" — it is enough. 
Short as the declaration is, it carries the mind back 
to all the revelation of his personality and thus makes 
the love assume larger and larger proportions. There 
may not be much of the poetic, the passionate, the 
sentimental in the love kindled in the soul by a 
sympathetic study of the Westminster Confession and 
Catechisms, but it will be intelligent, permanent, prac- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 125 

tical, and a constantly acting and constraining force 
in our daily life. 

It is true the Westminster Confession emphasizes 
the condition of man, possibly to such an extent as 
to constitute a distinctive feature. More than any 
other creed has it elaborated human sinfulness and 
reduced human ability to its zero point. It has even 
seemed to some to deny all ethical value to truthful- 
ness, honesty, and kindness when practised by the 
unregenerate. So far as this is characteristic, it 
may seem to be an exception to the general statement, 
that our distinctive features grow out of our analysis 
of God's character. But after all, it is reasonably 
clear that this dark, black picture of human nature, 
has resulted from bringing man into judgment where 
the standard is not a human ideal of morality, but 
the perfect righteousness of God himself. The 
worthlessness of human deeds is not based on their 
valuation for purposes of this life, but considered as 
human efforts to attain salvation. And the primary 
purpose of this humbling view of man is to magnify 
the grace of God, to make it clear that his salvation 
is in no degree based on his own merit, and to em- 
phasize his complete indebtedness to God. 

From the fact that acceptance of our standards is 
exacted only of our ministers and elders, and this 
not in all its words and phrases, but as a system of 
doctrines, it may fairly be inferred that the main 
purpose is to secure a certain content in all preaching 



126 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

and teaching. The underlying assumption seems to 
be that if this system of doctrine is faithfully preached, 
its direct tendency will be to bring God and man to- 
gether upon terms most favorable to promote God's 
glory, and to secure in man the development of the 
highest type of Christian character. In order to this, 
man must be brought as a humble suppliant before 
God, ready to receive grace, because realizing most 
deeply his need of it. But mere humility and recep- 
tivity will not make a strong, active, persevering 
saint. All-powerful faith and hope and love must 
be planted and nourished in the soul, and these results 
can come only from intelligent convictions concerning 
the character of God. Upon God rather than upon 
his own soul must man's attentive gaze be fixed. 
What we think of ourselves depends primarily on 
what we think of God. Self-knowledge that is valu- 
able can come to us only as we bring ourselves in 
contrast with God. And growth in Christian nobil- 
ity and effective service of our generation, according 
to the will of God, are nourished by our increasing 
knowledge of God. Believing as I do that the West- 
minster system of doctrine is the outgrowth of an 
earnest and intelligent attempt to analyze for the 
world the characteristics of the Most Perfect Being, I 
cannot but long for a revival to some extent of doc- 
trinal preaching that shall follow the general type 
of theological thinking set before us in our standards. 
More modern phraseology and more modern concep- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 127 

tions may be desirable*, but close adherence to the 
essential thoughts of our Confession can scarcely fail 
to give to our Sabbath-day hearers a grander, nobler, 
truer, and more scriptural conception of God, than 
many of them are now forming under a style of 
preaching that is better adapted to give a conception 
of the character of modern leaders and events. 



THE WESTMINSTER POLITY AND 
WORSHIP. 

BY THE 

Key. KOBEKT F. COYLE, D. D. 



THE WESTMINSTER POLITY AND WORSHIP. 

BY THE 

Rev. ROBERT F. COYLE, D.D. 



Moderator, Fathers, and Brethren : 

The forces that make history are usually not con- 
spicuous. The mightiest things are not those which 
appeal to the eye of sense. In this great world-drama 
there are actors behind the scenes far more, potent 
than those that stand close up against the foot-lights. 
However insignificant they may have seemed in 
their time, and however small may be the space 
allotted to them by the mere secular historian, we 
now know that the battles fought in the Jerusalem 
Chamber were more significant than Naseby or Mars- 
ton Moor. The business which the Westminster As- 
sembly was set to do was to grapple with principles, 
by whose resistless force Cromwell and his Ironsides 
were pushed into immortal prominence. It was these 
principles and what it did with them, that made the 
Westminster Assembly the most important event of 
the 17th century. 

The subject assigned to me has to do with the main 
purpose for which the Assembly was convened. That 

131 



132 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

purpose was to prepare such a form of church polity 
and worship as might bring about religious uniform- 
ity in the three kingdoms. This according to the 
order of Parliament, was to take the place of " church 
government by archbishops, bishops and their chan- 
cellors, commissaries, deans and chapters, archdea- 
cons, and other ecclesiastical officers depending upon 
the hierarchy, which is resolved to be taken away." 

I am sure I shall best serve the interests of this 
day and hour, not by exploiting the superiority of 
the Westminster polity and worship, nor by going 
minutely into their history, but by emphasizing the 
great principles for which the Westminster divines 
contended in formulating a system of government 
and worship for the Church. Regnant in their 
thought, first, last, and midst, was the cardinal prin- 
ciple of the alone Headship of Jesus Christ. It 
colored all their discussions and directed them to all 
their conclusions. As the sovereignty of God was the 
formative principle in their theology, so the sove- 
reignty of God, the Son, was the shaping principle 
in their system of government and worship. The 
key in each case was the same. When they passed 
from doctrine to polity, or from polity to doctrine, or 
from both to worship, there was no break in the 
harmony. 

They found their authority in the Word of God. 
What the Bible said was final. They were guided 
by the Book ; and in obedience neither to tradition, 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 133 

nor to the light of the inner consciousness, would 
they go beyond the record. They conceived that 
their business was not to adjust the Bible to man, 
nor to cut and clip the Book to fit human prejudice 
and accommodate human conceit, but to faithfully 
adjust man to the Bible. From their point of view 
it was not for. them to amend the chart, but to steer 
their course according to its directions, reach what 
port they might. 

Accordingly, with a clearness never to be misun- 
derstood, with a conviction that could not be shaken, 
with a heart for any fate, they declared that " Christ, 
who is Prophet, King, and Head of the Church, hath 
fulness of power, and containeth all other offices, by 
way of eminency in himself." 

Again, in briefer phrase, they affirmed that " the 
Lord Jesus Christ is the only King, the only Head 
in Zion." There they stood, firm as a rock on a 
storm-beaten shore. From that position nothing 
could dislodge them. No Erastian modification 
whatsoever could be allowed. The crown rights of 
Jesus Christ were not to be seized, or in any large or 
small degree shared by another. There was room 
for but one on the throne of Zion. To him civil and 
ecclesiastical rulers alike must give place. By logic 
as unanswerable as the Bible, and by arguments that 
left the Erastian brethren not a leg to stand upon, 
they upheld the kingship of Jesus, " brought forth 
the royal diadem, and crowned him Lord of all." 



134 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

This kingship of our Lord, in all matters ecclesias- 
tical, seems simple enough to us to-day, living under 
the free skies of America — so simple that it is apt to 
be passed over rather lightly. How could a truth so 
self-evident ever have been disputed"? But it was no 
simple thing two hundred and fifty years ago. It 
raised momentous issues. To stand for the unquali- 
fied sovereignty of Christ over his Church, as those 
men stood at that time, was radical and revolutionary. 
It involved the overthrow of many a cherished idol 
and a new-making of society. Only strong, brave. 
heroic men would have dared to announce and de- 
fend such a principle there and then. After the 
Restoration, when the tide had turned and sought 
to sweep them again upon the coasts of prelacy, 
rather than conform and bow the knee to Baal, they 
proved their earnestness and courage by the clear 
testimony of suffering. 

The avowal of this principle was a challenge 
both to Caesar and Rome, both to politician and 
prelate, a notice served upon them to quit-claim 
the sovereignty of the Church of God. Both were 
usurpers : both were exercising lordship where they 
had no right; and this fearless stand for the s 
Headship of Christ was a writ of ejectment. Elder 
Lord Warriston put it with telling terseness when 
he said before the Assembly " that Christ lives 
and reigns alone, over, and in his Church, and will 
have all done therein accordinsr to his word and 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 135 

will, and that he has given no supreme headship 
over his Church to any pope, king, or parliament 
whatsoever." There spoke the spirit of the Covenan- 
ters. That ringing utterance, vigorous and fresh as 
a blast from his own northern hills, could not be 
mistaken. He meant to be understood, and he was. 
This cardinal doctrine, so constantly insisted upon, 
was the great mother-lode of the range. Out of the 
rich ore it yielded was minted the following, whose 
image and superscription Presbyterians know so well : 
" the Lord Jesus, as King and Head of his Church, 
hath therein appointed a government in the hands 
of church officers, distinct from the civil magistrate." 
That looks very innocent now as it stands in our 
Confession of Faith, at the head of the chapter on 
Church Censures. But nothing else so stirred and 
aroused the Assembly. It was the Church's Magna 
Charta, a Declaration of Independence that contained 
in it the seed-stuff of other declarations further 
on. It affirmed the autonomy of the Church, and 
so brought on the tug of war. 

Admitting that Christ is King in Zion, has he ap- 
pointed a government therein ? That was first to be 
settled. The appeal was to the Word of God, and 
the question was answered in the affirmative. But 
then came the further question, What is that Govern- 
ment? And in answering it, all the powers of the 
gifted leaders of the three classes that composed the 
Assembly were brought into play. One would like 



136 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

to have heard them. No pygmies contended there. 
It was a battle of Titans. The High Church Presby- 
terians of the Cartwright School, backed by the 
Scotch Commissioners, argued with splendid ability 
and genius for the Presbyterian form of government 
and the divine rights of Presbytery. They resorted 
to no quibbles, or sophistries, or intrigues, inside or 
outside of the Chamber, to gain their ends. They drew 
their weapons from the Word of God. and wielded 
them with a skill and mastery which the opposition, 
with Parliament on their side, could not overcome. 

The Independents fought them at every step ; 
fought them on the question of Ruling Elders, on 
the Subordination of Church Courts, on the Power 
of Ordination, on the Jurisdiction of the Presbyteries 
and Synods — fought them all along the line. In the 
matter of excluding or suspending scandalous per- 
sons from the Lord's table, however, their chief oppo- 
nents were the Erastians. With slight concessions 
here and there the Presbyterians triumphed : and I 
think the fair-minded reader must conclude that their 
victory was due, not to their voting majority in the 
Assembly, but to the force of their arguments and 
the impregnable strength of their position. They 
stood on the Word of God, and they who stand on 
that rock are not easily moved. 

But by far the hottest contest in that historic de- 
bate raged around the last clause of the proposition, 
" distinct from the civil magistrate." On this point 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 137 

the heavy guns were trained. Selden, Lightfoot, and 
Coleman attacked it with all the force of their pon- 
derous Hebrew learning. These were the Erastian 
leaders in the Assembly, and they brought the whole 
weight of their vast scholarship to bear against 
the proposition. In their rebound from prelatical 
tyranny, which was natural enough, they swung 
away over to the other extreme. The genius of Pres- 
byterianism leads always in the middle of the road, 
and so avoids Scylla on the one hand and Charybdis 
on the other. But that genius these great leaders 
had not caught. The idea of any sort of spiritual 
jurisdiction was intolerable to them. Of that they 
had had a surfeit. They were afraid of it. Hence 
they contended hotly and eloquently, and with all 
the wealth of their prodigious learning, for the eccle- 
siastical supremacy of Caesar. They fought for a 
blended polity, one that would make the Church 
only a department of the State, with the power of the 
keys in the hands of the civil magistrate. Convinced 
that the result of a government within a government, 
such as the Presbyterians proposed, would be a con- 
tinual spiritual lordship over the conscience, they com- 
bated it with might and main. The thought was 
abhorrent. That a political tyranny over the con- 
science might be quite as bad if not worse than any 
tyranny of an ecclesiastical sort, was something they 
seem not to have considered. 

So the battled raged; and in that great conflict 



138 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

the Erastian leaders found foemen worthy of their 
steel. Memorable especially was that day when the 
Jerusalem Chamber was thronged to hear Selden 
on Excommunication. It was one of the greatest 
efforts of his life. He fairly dazed the spectators and 
the Assembly with his astonishing learning. Excom- 
munication he held to be a purely civil function, to 
be administered alone by the civil magistrate ; and 
to prove his position he amazed his hearers with his 
surprising display of rabbinical lore. Two members 
undertook to reply, Herle and Marshall ; but their 
speeches fell flat. Then Samuel Rutherford turned 
eagerly and appealingly to young Gillespie, and said, 
" Rise, George, rise up, man, and defend the right of 
the Lord Jesus Christ to govern by his own laws the 
Church he has purchased with his blood." George 
rose, calm, steady, and confident. It was a tremend- 
ous hour and a tremendous undertaking for a young 
man of thirty-one to answer Selden. But the strip- 
ling knew what he had in his sling. He answered 
Selden so effectually, so crushingly, that the giant 
was silenced. He is reported to have said, " That 
young man has by a single speech swept away the 
learning and labor of ten years of my life." 

But let us not lose sight of the fact that behind all 
the Presbyterians contended for, the principle to which 
they clung with characteristic tenacity was the Head- 
ship of Jesus Christ. Though they did not succeed 
in cutting off Erastianism entirely , and only partially 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 139 

won the fight, yet they were so far victorious that the 
polity finally adopted by them meant the ultimate 
and absolute divorce of Church and State. 

For, mark you, embedded in that polity, and grow- 
ing out of its cardinal principle of the Headship of 
Christ, as the branch grows out of the tree, was the 
doctrine that " God alone is Lord of the conscience, 
and hath left it free from the doctrines and com- 
mandments of men, which are in anything contrary 
to his Word, or beside it in matters of faith and wor- 
ship." Pope, prelate, and magistrate alike were cut 
off by that principle from all interference with the 
rights of the individual in his relations to God. No 
one claims that the Westminster divines were free 
from intolerance. It is frankly admitted that they 
partook of the spirit of the times in which they lived. 
Everywhere in that day there was a disposition to 
persecute and repress. Cromwell, speaking to the 
House of Commons, said, " Is there not yet upon the 
spirits of men a strange itching ; nothing will satisfy 
them unless they can press their fingers upon their 
brethren's consciences, to pinch them there." Even 
the Protector himself did some pinching of this sort. 
To men of intense earnestness in any age the easy- 
going Laodicean quality of half-heartedness is abom- 
inable ; and it was particularly so to the men who 
figured and fought in the mighty liberating move- 
ments of the 17th century. 

Great ideas at first are like streams far up the 



1 40 WESTMINSTER A SSEMBL Y 

mountain slopes. It takes time for them to work 
their way down into the valleys, around ledge, and 
crag, and cliff, until they spread out over the plain 
and cover it with waving harvests. However much 
the Westminster divines may have failed to practice 
the toleration involved in the sacred truth, that ''' God 
alone is Lord of the conscience/' let us give them full 
credit for affirming the doctrine itself. The men who 
asserted that principle in all its plenitude and set it 
down in enduring form were among the greatest 
benefactors of mankind. Conscience must not be 
: : rreed by any civil or religious power. Absolutism 
must stand aside There is but one Sovereign over 
the Church and one Sovereign over the soul. All 
honor to the men who said that, and who say il 
still. 

No church with that doctrine upon its banners can 
ivei be enslaved. No people with that fertilizing 
principle in their hearts can ever submit to despot- 
ism, political or religious. Thrilling and sublime 
for evermore was the effect of it after the Restoration, 
when prelacy was again in the saddle, booted and 
spurred. Rather than yield their rights of con- 
science, 2000 English Presbyterian minister- on St 
Bartholomew's Day, 1660, showed the stuff they were 
made of by leaving their churches, their support, 
their homes, their weeping flocks, and becoming 
strangers and wanderers in their native land. It 
was this doctrine that put into the Presbyterians of 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 141 

Scotland the strength and stability of their own 
granite hills. Claverhouse and his dragoons were 
powerless to trample out the fire it kindled. They 
might as well have hurled their wrath at Ben Nevis. 
That fire flamed forth brighter and brighter. See 
the effects of it there in Edinburgh, just two centuries 
after the calling of the Assembly ! It inspired 470 
of the Lord's freemen, headed by the immortal Chal- 
mers, to cut all connection with the State, to give up 
their churches, their manses, their stipends, and go 
forth into the liberty of the sons of God. The spirit 
of Knox, and Henderson, and Rutherford, and Gil- 
lepsie — the spirit of freedom, of independence, and 
above all, of loyalty to the great Head of the Church, 
burnt in them, and sent its light, and warmth, and 
power out over the Scottish hills and on to the ends 
of the earth. Happy will it be for our denomination 
if this day shall kindle something more of that spirit 
in us, and send us to our homes and our people to 
pass it along. 

Be it observed, moreover, that this principle of the 
sole sovereignty of Jesus Christ was uppermost in the 
mind of the Assembly when it formed the Directory 
of Worship. All human inventions, all ritualistic 
addenda, all ceremonial pomp and pageantry, every- 
thing not warranted by the Word of God must be 
abolished. Over the Rock of Salvation had grown 
accretions of priestly forms, and liturgical superflui- 
ties, and prelatical rubbish without end — piled up 



142 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

until the Rock was hidden from view. That rub- 
bish must be brushed away so that the Rock might 
appear in all its glory, and draw the sinner to the 
refuge of its riven sides. The Church was so filled 
with ecclesiastical bric-a-brac that the Church's Lord 
could not be seen. Under the mass of rubrics, and 
rites, and formularies imposed by prelacy, spirituality 
lay stifled, choked, dead. The burden had become 
intolerable. Jenny Geddes' bold fling of a stool at 
the priest's head, in old St. Giles' church, showed 
what stirring events were in the wind. " All Edin- 
burgh, all Scotland, and behind that, all England 
and Ireland," says Carlyle, " rose into unappeasable 
commotion on the flight of that stool of Jenny's." 
The screw had been twisted one round too far. 
Things had come to such a pass that in the estima- 
tion of the prelates the Service Book was everything, 
the Word of God nothing. Man-made liturgies en- 
couraged an idle and unedifying ministry. Forms 
were made ready to their hands, which they fol- 
lowed with lazy and droning stupidity. The peo- 
ple were fed on chaff blown into their faces from the 
prelatical mill, and the wretched fare maddened 
them. 

Such, briefly, were the conditions that prevailed 
when the Westminster divines set themselves to pre- 
pare a Directory of Worship. It was soon done and 
adopted with great unanimity. As it came from 
their hands, and as it stands to-day, it is charac- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 143 

terized by strength, simplicity, spirituality, scrip- 
turalness, and, above all, by the supremacy it gives 
to the Lord Jesus.* While the Directory insists 
upon order and dignity in the conduct of divine 
service, it encourages freedom, and leaves abundant 
room for the play of individuality. To neither set 
forms on the one hand, nor to unstudied effusions 
on the other does it give any countenance. It is in- 
tended not to be mandatory, but suggestive ; not to lay 
down fixed rules, but to supply help and furniture ; 
not to be inflexible and unadaptable, but simple and 
elastic, suited to all emergencies and all classes and 
conditions ; not to spare the minister and relieve him 
from exertion, but to stimulate him to efforts worthy 
of his high calling. 

But particularly noticeable in it is the pre-eminence 
it gives to the Son of God. Wherever the light falls, 
it is seen to proceed from that radiant center. If the 
Directory emphasizes the preaching of the Word, it 
is because it is the King's law. If it sets the Bible 
in the front as the only rule of the kingdom, it is 
because it is the King's book. If it enjoins the 
sanctifi cation of the Sabbath, it is because it is the 
King's day. If it excludes all priestly and idola- 
trous notions from the sacraments, it is because they 
were instituted by the King, and become efficacious 

* And these qualities our Church, if she is wise and true to her 
grand history, will zealously conserve ; she will set herself like a wall 
against all tendencies toward ritualism. 



144 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

only by the King's blessing and the working of the 
King's spirit. 

Westminster divines built upon the fundamental 
fact that Christ is not only the Church's Lord, but 
the Church's Life. Through all the system of polity 
and worship which they adopted, determining its 
spirit and character, runs the cardinal principle of 
the Headship of Jesus. And out of this flow the 
great subordinate principles upon which I have 
touched. 

These principles are not dead. Principles that in- 
volve the glory of the Son of God, the independence 
of the Church, the infallibility of his Word, the 
freedom of conscience, the spirituality of worship, 
can never die. They are the most living issues of 
this present hour. To-day they need ringing out 
more faithfully than ever. It is not for me to preach 
to this Assembly ; but in a closing word, I may be 
allowed to declare my own convictions. In doing so 
I strike no note of pessimism. I conjure up no 
unrifted shadows, but simply indicate what seems to 
me to be the supreme need of our Church as we stand 
facing the new century. 

What we need to multiply conversions, to make 
our preaching mighty, to kindle our missionar}^ fires, 
to set every Board free from the incubus of debt, to 
bring us together, North and South, to unite the 
entire Presbyterian family, and send us forth upon a 
new career of conquest and glory, is a revival of 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 145 

loyalty to our King. What is needed is to get away 
from side issues, away from the catching themes of 
the hour, away from themes literary, and themes 
political, and themes social, and themes exploited by 
the daily press, and lift up the name of our King, 
and make it pre-eminent above every name. Unless 
this is done, agnosticism and materialism will win 
the day. Unless this is done, the pulpit will go into 
eclipse. It is great themes that make great preaching. 
So far as I am able to read the signs of the times, I 
believe it is the exalted Christ or defeat. Nothing but 
the enthronement of Jesus will avail to break through 
the thick-crusted indifference of our times. This 
and this only will keep irreverent fingers from muti- 
lating the Word of God. This and this only will 
solve the labor problem, beat back the rum power, 
inspire the philanthropy that will plant churches on 
our frontiers, in the midst of the teeming population 
of our cities, and send the gospel away into the dark- 
est and remotest fields of human life. There is no 
vitalizing, no aggressive, no conquering power in 
Christianity that does not come from the exalted 
Christ. If we are to win, and break down strong- 
holds, and hasten the latter-day glory, it will only be 
by. the charm, the music, the magic, the power of 
that matchless name. We shall have to lift him up 
as the fathers did in the days that tried men's souls. 
Let the sublime doctrine of the sovereignty of the 

crucified and risen Christ, central in our polity and 
10 



146 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 

worship, be made central in our preaching, central 
in our living, central in all our religious activities ; 
only let us get a new grasp of the kingship of Jesus, 
a new longing to put the crown on the brow that 
was pierced, a new hunger to lay our trophies at his 
feet, and then, then, will our captivity be turned as 
the streams in the South, and all the dry places will 
blossom into life, and fruitfulness, and beauty. 



THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY, THE 
MEN AND THEIR WORK. 



BY THE 

Kev. WALLACE KADCLIFFE, D. D. 
Moderator. 



THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY, THE MEN 
AND THEIR WORK. 



Rev. WALLACE EADCLIFFE, D.D., 
Moderator. 



The Westminster Assembly was a rebellion of the 
people against the bosses. It was the assertion of the 
independent conscience, the claim of spiritual liberty, 
the protest of outraged right. The grip of spiritual 
usurpation was closed by Henry VIII. It tightened 
under James. It crushed under Charles. When the 
tale of bricks is doubled Moses comes. The long 
suppressed demand forced utterance. The explosion 
and crash in Scotland gave shock and release. The 
people were heard from. The response was at last 
the "Assembly of godly and learned divines to be 
consulted with by Parliament for the settling of 
the government and liturgy of the church." It 
was a representative assembly made up of choice 
men — one hundred and twenty-one divines, eleven 
lords, twenty commoners — representing all the coun- 
ties of England, the universities of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge, and all shades of ecclesiasticism. It was an 

149 



150 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

effect and most suggestively an Episcopalian as- 
sembly, its few Scotch members excepted. It was 
equal to its task, on every side men conspicuous for 
learning, eloquence, and piety. Milton's lofty scorn 
is out of place. Call the roll of that Assembly. Here 
are ecclesiastics wise, tolerant, and profound, like 
Calamy, distinguished Orientalists like Lightfoot, 
Greek specialists like Gataker, dialecticians like Rey- 
nolds, and Gillespie the prince of disputants ; versa- 
tile and profound scholars like Wallis of Oxford, 
whose eminence as a theologian was only surpassed 
by his attainments as a mathematician ; linguists like 
Palmer, conspicuous preachers like Marshall and 
Goodwin; the elite of Scotch theology and wisdom 
in Rutherford, Henderson, and Baillie, " the learned 
Selden," lawyer, historian, theologian, archaeologist, 
and linguist; laymen distinguished as statesmen, 
scholars, or jurists ; scores of walking libraries, bands 
of armed disputants, the whole presided over by 
Twisse, scholar and theologian of continental fame. 
When such men come together, there is a reason for 
it, and their conclusions cannot be whistled down the 
wind. 

The opening scene in the Abbey was solemn and 
impressive. But the crowning event was in the fol- 
lowing September in St. Margaret's Church, West- 
minster, when the Assembly and Parliament — the 
whole representative body of Church and State — 
stood up in divine worship and with uplifted hands 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 151 

took oath to receive and stand by the Solemn League 
and Covenant — a civil treaty as well as religious bond 
— heroes all, to whom life was testimony and con- 
science dominant. 

There is a sketch of the civilization of the times in 
the record of the transfer from Henry V., Chapel to 
the Jerusalem Chamber, which the gossipy chronicler 
says " has a good fyre which is some dainties in Lon- 
don." In that historic chamber — now chiefly historic 
because of their presence and work — this Assembly 
met June, 1643-Feb. 22, 1649, five and a half years. 
They took their time. It was a way they had, as the 
gossipy Bailie so often reveals. " Every proposition 
they harangue long and very learnedlie." " When 
every man has said and the replies and duplies and 
triplies are heard." " Their longsomeness is awful." 
" When all were tired it came to the question." One 
almost imagines he is describing some General As- 
sembly somewhere. 

There is a refreshing revelation of carnal wisdom 
in these high counsels when, remembering that armed 
men are in the field, we hear the naive confession and 
plea " not to meddle with haste till it please God to 
advance our armies which we expect will assist much 
our arguments." 

It was an assembly of devotion — their monthly day 
of fasting and prayer, but one expression of the 
pervading spirit which pleaded the promise of the 
opening sermon, " I will not leave you comfortless." 



152 WESTMIXSTER ASSEMBLY 

It bowed to but one absolutism. It backed its propo- 
sitions with Scripture. It sought and followed un- 
hesitatingly the voice from heaven. 

The work reveals the men. Their heroism, scholar- 
ship, statesmanship, spirituality, have their most bril- 
liant revelation in the results of that Assembly. 

I. THE FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 

This was necessarily their first address. This was 
the center of the battle. The war cries indicate the 
parties — "Divine Right," "Limited Episcopacy," 
" Root and Branch." The divine right of episcopacy 
was a recent claim, first maintained by Bancroft in 
1588. Erastianism was doomed to an early dismissal 
by such men. Church rule cannot be a whim of 
society nor be changed with the changing complexion 
of transitory politics. And experience led them to 
believe w 7 ith James, "No bishop, no king." But 
there is another king, one Jesus. " God alone is Lord 
of the conscience." What does he say? They 
turned to their Greek Testaments. 

Their first dispute was as to the identity of doctor 
and pastor in the individual congregation. They 
were wiser in the seventeenth than in the nineteenth 
century. Our Church must return to the wisdom 
of the fathers if in the larger communities we are to 
conserve our forces and advance. The diversities of 
gifts must be recognized and used. The suggestion 
of the Westminster Assembly — the doctor and pastor 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 153 

— will overtake many a difficulty and give strength 
and efficiency to the modern Presbyterian Church. 
They were not very pronounced upon the eldership. 
They considered it as "a poynt of high consequence," 
but only decided that it was scripturally warrantable 
but not expressly instituted. But the principles of 
government were not uncertain. The doctrine of the 
supreme authority of Scripture struck at the root of 
hierarchical authority. In letters of heavenly light 
they saw gleaming from their Bibles, " Liberty, Equal- 
ity, Fraternity." They asserted republicanism as the 
architect's principle of the pattern shown in the 
Mount. They were not extremists. Ussher's plan re- 
taining a formal episcopacy as a part of presbyterial 
or synodical government, if urged by him and others 
as members of that Assembly, might well have been 
the true and permanent reform — a moderate Presby- 
terianism. It was only another formula for the 
superintendents of the Knox government in Scotland. 
Their conclusions were distinct. Presbytery is the 
continuation of apostolic Christianity. Primitive 
episcopacy is presbytery. It is not silenced or es- 
topped by synods or councils. It is historic, not 
traditional. It exalts the Scripture above the Church. 
It presses back to Christ and his word. It asserts 
above all the crown rights of Jesus Christ. It is 
significant that the draft of the church government 
was finished on the Fourth of July, 1645 — a declara- 
tion of independence antedating by more than a cen- 



154 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

tury that of the American Colonies. That principle 
here formulated so distinctly — liberty capable of order, 
order fruitful of liberty, self-government recognizing 
the governing self — that principle uttered in the 
Jerusalem Chamber, was the gun whose ball went 
round the world, and whose sound wakened the 
echoes at Bunker Hill and Gettysburg. 

II. THE DIRECTORY FOR WORSHIP. 

It was not imposed. The singed cat fears the fire. 
It was recommended. It was prepared by men 
familiar with liturgies. The Reformed Church used 
prayer-books. Knox's Book of Common Order 
was of use in Scotland and was never officially put 
aside. These men were familiar with the Book of 
Common Prayer, and were there not to destroy, 
but to purge. The Directory was a compromise. 
I question whether it ever occurred to any to pre- 
scribe unwritten forms. It certainly does not de- 
termine between free and written prayer. It left 
the churches in the sphere of Christian liberty. 
Their letter to the Scottish churches specifically gives 
liberty to use either the old — Knox's Liturgy — or the 
new, the Directory for Worship. Even in the discus- 
sion of the section upon the Public Prayer it was 
stated that they did not only set down the heads of 
things, but so largely that with the altering of here 
and there a word, a man may mould it into a prayer. 
The Directory certainly never contemplated the 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 155 

heterogeneous and irresponsible license which in our 
day has come to be known as Presbyterian worship, 
wherein every Presbyterian minister does that which 
is right in his own eyes ; nor that absolute tyranny 
which practically ordains a most unliturgical liturgy 
as the only freedom of worship. Its contention was 
against certain prescribed forms and imposed cere- 
monies. Jenny Geddes threw her stool not at the 
prayer book, but at the Romish abuses which 
the book sought to impose upon her. "Will ye 
say mass at my lug?" It asserts the liberty of 
worship to have its best expression in form of highest 
truth and beauty. It erects the pulpit as the central 
object in the church. It emphasizes the sermon. 
But the sermon is not the only element in the wor- 
ship. We preach. But we also pray and sing and 
read the Word and make offerings and observe 
sacraments. It very suggestively directs that 
" ministers ought to be careful not to make their 
sermons so long as to interfere with or exclude the 
more important duties of prayer and praise " (Chap, 
vii. Sec. 4). It lays stress upon the order of topics 
and succession of parts of worship. It makes no 
demand for severe simplicity. It utters no pro- 
hibition. Its liberty embraces the liberty of using 
the written form as genuinely Presbyterian. The 
continued assertion of this liberty would have saved 
and strengthened our Church. The liturgical 
tendency of to-day is only a return to the earlier 



156 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

Presbyterianism, which aimed in this Directory at a 
service book with freedom of extempore or written 
prayer which should be not a master but a guide. It 
is our province so to apply the principles of our book 
as to give a proportioned and harmonious order and 
expression to prayer, praise, preaching, and sacrament 
with such appropriate and local freedom as shall 
above all others illustrate and encourage the com- 
munion of the saints. 

III. THE CONFESSION OF FAITH. 

The best thing they did was a thing they did not 
intend to do. They were asked to revise the Thirty- 
nine Articles. But revision, as our own Church 
found, is apt to be a delicate matter. They dropped 
revision and wrote the Confession. It is the only 
Protestant Confession of which we have details of its 
composition and construction. It was the culmina- 
tion of the creeds. From the first creed in the con- 
fession of Peter and the Baptismal Formula, through 
the simplicity of the Apostles' Creed, the expansions 
and limitations of the Nicene and Constantinopolitan 
creeds, the strong and sturdy challenge of Luther's 
Ninety-five Theses, the comprehensive but faulty 
Augsburg Confession, the glowing martyr tone and 
color of the Scotch Confessions, the moderation and 
faithfulness of the Gallican Confession, the minute, 
controversial yet catholic statements of the Helvitic, 
and the sweet and scriptural yet limited Heidelberg 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 157 

Confession, there were progression, definiteness, and 
comprehension, until out of all came the Westminster 
Confession, of superb logical construction, unmatched 
precision, unapproachable dignity, and magnificent 
fidelity — the ripest fruit of Reformed theology. It 
bears the impress of its militant times. It came out 
of the throes of mightiest controversy, and we hear 
sounding through it the tramp of hosts, the clash of 
arms, and shout of victory. Of course, it was Cal- 
vinistic. Their doctrine of the Church compelled it. 
The question of the Church has more intimate re- 
lation than is commonly thought to one's convictions 
upon the scheme of redemption. Rationalism will 
most commonly be found with the Erastian or 
Independent theory of the Church, Sacramentarianism 
with Prelacy, and Calvinism with republican Pres- 
byterianism. And it was a necessity of the times. 
The Protestant world was Calvinistic. A Reformed 
Council in the middle of the seventeenth century 
could have announced nothing other than Calvinistic 
theology. 

Its proximate source was the Irish Articles, drawn 
up by Archbishop Ussher, and adopted by the Irish 
Convocation in 1615, which form the connecting-link 
between the Thirty -nine Articles and the West- 
minster Confession. Many of its objectionable 
phrases and sentences are evidently borrowed from 
this source. There is a striking similarity in the 
chapter on Decrees, and generally in the order of 



158 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

subjects, headings of chapters, doctrine, and very 
language. It is also worthy of notice that much of 
its doctrinal statement is due to Reynolds, who is 
also the author of the General Thanksgiving of the 
Book of Common Prayer. It seems to me that the 
man who claims Archbishop Ussher as his father in 
God, and subscribes to the Thirty -nine Articles and 
uses devoutly every Sabbath Reynolds's Thanksgiving, 
should not object very strenuously to the Calvinism 
of the Westminster Confession. 

This Confession begins right. It is framed from 
the standpoint of divine sovereignty. It starts with 
God and unfolds the entire history of the created uni- 
verse as the unfolding of the eternal purpose. It is 
more logical, more comprehensive, and more scriptural 
than the modern cry of " Back to Christ." A whole 
chain is more than one of its strongest links. The 
covenant of grace is a subordinate part of the eternal 
purpose. 

It is evangelical. It is flushed with the ardor of 
individual conviction. It gives clear and sufficient 
expression to the doctrines of the Trinity, the Person 
and Work of Christ, and offices of the Holy Spirit, 
and binds us in the communion of historic Christi- 
anity. It has no place for the new mysticism. It 
does not recognize Christian science falsely so called. 

It is comprehensive. It proclaims itself the heir 
of all the doctrinal attainments of the Christian 
Church. Lutheranism had wrought out into dis- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 159 

tinct and enduring form the doctrine of justification 
by faith alone ; Calvinism that of salvation by grace 
alone ; Puritanism that of the authority of the Word 
alone. These they took, and giving even clearer 
definition and purer form, made their own the culmi- 
nation and crown of all systems of theology. 

It is refreshingly distinct. It was written in the 
day when men made definitions. They knew what 
Arianism and Antinomianism and Arminianism 
meant. Ours is the day of Kitschlianism, when we 
supplant definition with feeling, when the river does 
not believe in having any banks, and when the home 
of truth is supposed to be all out-doors. 

It is liberal and tolerant. It was not the product 
of any school. It was a compromise, and compro- 
mises are moderate. It assumes the fact but does not 
define the mode of inspiration, so that you may be- 
lieve with me in verbal inspiration, or with my 
neighbors in plenary inspiration, or with him beyond 
who avoids both words, provided you agree with all 
of us that the Scriptures are "the Word of God 
written." 

It presents election, not of sovereignty but of grace, 
not of selfishness but for service. It preaches hope 
even to those incapable of being outwardly called. It 
teaches the highest and best doctrine of the Lord's 
Day. It presents the simplest, most spiritual, and 
satisfying doctrine of the Lord's Supper. It pro- 
nounces the broadest and most catholic definition 



160 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

of the Church, embracing in its cordial recognition 
and fellowship affusionist and iminersionist, post- 
millenial and premillenial, sub-, super-, and infra- 
lapsarian, and " all throughout the world who profess 
the true religion together with their children." 

It has imperfections. It shows the pressing of the 
galling chain which bound the Church to the State. 
Its author was the creation of the Long Parliament 
and amenable to its authority. It assigns to civil 
government the duty of calling synods, protecting 
orthodoxy, and punishing heresy. It does not men- 
tion the word atonement. It pays too much atten- 
tion to the deceased wife's sister. It might have had 
less interest in elect infants. It is too logical in refer- 
ence to reprobation. It might have given larger 
emphasis to the Holy Spirit. But it has enriched 
literature with one of its noblest chapters upon the 
Holy Scriptures. It has endowed human liberty 
with its golden maxim, " God alone is Lord of the 
conscience." It is up-to-date — the most modern of 
modern creeds in that it anticipates the favorite 
humanitarianism in giving the humblest man a 
necessary place in the eternal purpose, and thus 
endows him with a dignity far transcending the 
dreams of mere human philosophy. 

IV. THE CATECHISMS. 

The Catechisms, Larger and Shorter, one for pul- 
pit exposition, the other for the education of chil- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 161 

dren, were their closing work. The Shorter Cate- 
chism differs from most in not taking the Apostles' 
Creed as its basis. It is not historical nor experi- 
mental. Lacking something of warmth and sim- 
plicity, it is strictly logical, of unrivalled statement, 
skilful construction, and incalculable value. Omit- 
ting the questions, the answers give a well-jointed, 
comprehensive, brief, and satisfactory creed. Per- 
haps that is what we are coming to — the best and 
most enduring bond of unity in sight. Its one hun- 
dred and seven questions divide logically into two 
parts at the thirty-eighth. The first part is a system 
of divinity. It recognizes that true life is built upon 
sound doctrine. The second part affords a fit direc- 
tory for every stage of the Christian life. Truth is in 
order to goodness. In the question, "What does 
God require of man?" the conscience is confronted 
with the inner witness. The Commandments voice 
duty. The " requireth " and the " forbiddeth " reveal 
the inability and guilt, and the awakened soul is led 
by faith in Jesus Christ, repentance unto life, and 
the means of grace — a complete circle of knowledge 
and experience. The soul whose life is hallowed by 
prayer has learned how to glorify and enjoy him. It 
cannot be too highly praised. It is a model of defi- 
nition. Most of the answers are minie balls, some 
of them columbiads. It has been the moulding 
power in uncounted lives. It has never been revised. 
It cannot be amended. It must not be neglected. 
11 



162 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 

It carries in its use the perpetuation and glory of the 
Presbyterian Church. 

Their complete work was presented as " an humble 
advice " — an advice which if well heeded had saved 
Charles his head, England her Church, constitutional 
government her prerogative, and endowed the world 
with the speedier gift of free institutions, enlightened 
consciences, and an enlarged humanity. 




Signer of the Declaration of Independence, and First Moderator of 



General Assembly. 



THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN 
CHURCH AND THE ADOPTING 

ACTS OF 1729 AND 1788. 



Rev. BENJAMIN L. AGNEW, D. D. 



THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
AND THE ADOPTING ACTS OF 1729 AND 

1788. 

BY THE 

Kev. benjamin l. agnew, d. d. 



In our magnificent Church we possess an ecclesi- 
astical polity which may be denominated specific, 
American Presbyterianism, whilst our doctrinal creed 
is generic, world-wide Paulinism. Our Church is not 
called in denominational nomenclature The Calvin- 
istic Church, but The Presbyterian Church. 

I. In considering the theme before us we shall first 
treat of Colonial Presbyterianism. 

The first classical assembly organized in this coun- 
try was organized under the name of " The Presby- 
tery," March 22, 1706. The first leaf of the minute 
book has been irrecoverably lost, and we have no 
evidence that the Presbytery formally adopted any 
written constitution. Mr. John Thompson, in 1728, 
advocated in Synod the adoption of the Confession 
of Faith of the Westminster Assembly as the Creed 
of the Church, the Synod, as he said, " Having never, 
by a conjunct act of the representatives of our Church, 

165 



166 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

made it our Confession, as we are a united body 
politic." And yet at a meeting of the Presbytery 
held in Philadelphia in 1712 there was an overture 
presented concerning difficulties between Rev. Mr. 
AVade and the people of Woodbridge, which read in 
part as follows : " It is overtured, that whereas, for 
these several years, we have endeavored to accommo- 
date the differences between Mr. Wade and the people 
of Woodbridge, after some time, at his own proposal, 
we admitted him as a member of our Presbytery and 
he submitted himself willingly to our Constitution " 
{Records, p. 27). Thus six years after The Presbytery 
was organized they had something which The Pres- 
bytery regarded as a " Constitution," to which Mr. 
AVade submitted. 

" The General Presbytery," as the classical assem- 
bly was sometimes called, resolved in 1716 to meet 
the next year as a Synod, and the body so met in 
Philadelphia in 1717. In 1721, the Synod said, 
"As we have been many years in the exercise of 
Presbyterian government and Church discipline, as 
exercised by the Presbyterians in the best Reformed 
Churches, as far as the nature and constitution of this 
country will allow, our opinion is, that if any brother 
have any overture to offer to be formed into an act 
by Synod, for the better carrying on in the matter of 
our government and discipline, that he may bring it 
in against next Synod " {Records, p. 68). In 1727, 
there is another reference (p. 86 of the Records) as 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 167 

follows: "And as to the call and settlement of the 
Rev. Mr. Pemherton at New York, the Synod does 
declare that the rules of our Presbyterian Constitu- 
tion were not observed in several respects by that 
congregation in the matter." 

The fair presumption, therefore, is that the West- 
minster Standards were for several years recognized 
as the law governing the actions of the Presbytery 
and afterward of the Synod, without any formal 
adoption of them as the Constitution of the Colonial 
Church. 

At that early day there was no formal subscription 
to the Confession of Faith required of those who were 
ministers in the Church. In 1728, the Synod, at a meet- 
ing held in Philadelphia, took the following action 
(Records, p. 94) : " There being an overture presented 
to Synod in writing, having reference to the Subscrib- 
ing of the Confession of Faith, etc., the Synod judg- 
ing this to be a very important affair, unanimously 
concluded to defer the consideration of it till the next 
Synod ; withal recommending it to the members of 
each Presbytery present to give timeous notice there- 
of to the absent members, and it is agreed that the 
next be a full meeting of Synod." 

The next year this matter was taken up at Phila- 
delphia, and on the 19th of September, 1729, the 
Adopting Act was unanimously passed by the Synod 
(Records, p. 94). After its passage we find this de- 
liverance : " The Synod, observing that unanimity, 



168 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

peace, and unity, which appeared in all their consul- 
tations and determinations relating to the affair of 
the Confession, did unanimously agree in giving 
thanks to God in solemn prayer and praises." Action 
was at the same time taken in regard to the Directory, 
which then included the Form of Government and 
what we now call the Directory for Worship. 
The Synod declared " that they judge the directory 
for worship, discipline, and government of the Church, 
commonly annexed to the Westminster Confession, 
to be agreeable in substance to the Word of God, and 
founded thereupon, and therefore do earnestty recom- 
mend the same to all their members, to be by them 
observed as near as circumstances will allow, and 
Christian prudence direct" (Records, p. 95). 

There were Established Churches in all the Colonies 
except Pennsylvania, and the Synod could not adopt 
a polity for the Church that could be universally 
enforced, for Makemie was imprisoned in New York 
for two months for daring as a Presbyterian to preach 
the gospel in a Colony where there was an Estab- 
lished Church. 

After the Adopting Act of 1729, subscription to 
the Standards of the Church was required of all 
ministers. In 1730 (Records, p. 98.) we find intrants 
were obliged " to receive and adopt the Confession 
and Catechisms at their admission, in the same man- 
ner and as fully as the members of the Synod did 
that were present " at the time of passing the Adopt- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 169 

ing Act, and this action was unanimously taken. In 
1734, the Synod ordered that inquiry be made every 
year whether ministers received were required " to 
adopt the Westminster Confession and Catechisms 
with the Directory." This is either to be regarded as 
an explanation of the act recommending the Direc- 
tory, or else it is a new adopting act formally requiring 
all ministers to adopt the Standards. The same year 
this action was taken : " Pursuant to act of Synod, 
found upon inquiry that Mr. William Tennent, 
junior, Mr. Andrew Archbold ordained, and Mr. 
Samuel Blair, licensed, did each and every one of 
them declare their assent and consent to the West- 
minster Confession and Catechisms, and Directory 
annexed, according to the intent of the act of Synod 
in that case made and provided." In 1736, the 
Synod made this clear and positive declaration : 
" That the Synod have adopted and still do adhere 
to the Westminster Confession, Catechisms, and 
Directory, without the least variation or altera- 
tion;" except only some clauses in the twentieth 
and twenty-third chapters, concerning the civil 
magistrate; and this action was unanimously 
adopted. 

In 1745, the Synod was unfortunately divided. 
The division took place from differences about mat- 
ters of policy, methods, and measures, rather than 
about doctrines, and when the Synods of Philadelphia 
and New York were again happily reunited, it was 



170 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

on the simple basis of the Standards of the Church 
as they had been previously adopted. 

In 1751, the Synod of Philadelphia ordered that 
the proposals of the Synod of New York, presented 
by that body in the year 1749, for a union with the 
Synod of Philadelphia, be recorded. In those propo- 
sals the Synod of New York says, " we all profess the 
same Confession of Faith and Directory of Worship." 
" And to preserve the common peace we would desire 
that all names of distinction which have been made 
use of in late times, be forever abolished; that 
every member give his consent to the West- 
minster Confession of Faith and Directory, ac- 
cording to the plan formerly agreed to by the 
Synod of Philadelphia, in the year 1729. Further, 
that every member promise that after any question 
has been determined by a major vote, he will actively 
concur, or passively submit, to the judgment of the 
body, but if his conscience permit him to comply 
with neither of these, then he shall be obliged 
peaceably to withdraw from Sy nodical communion, 
without any attempt to make a schism or divi- 
sion among us" (Records, p. 202). The Synod of 
Philadelphia the same year gave a similar deliver- 
ance so that there was a perfect understanding be- 
tween the two Synods (Records, p. 204). 

In 1758, the Reunion of the Synods took place, 
and they formed and united upon a basis in which 
they declared that " Both Synods continue to profess 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 171 

the same principles of faith, and adhere to the same 
form of worship, government, and discipline " (Rec- 
ords, p. 286). In the first article of the Basis of Union 
they declared that both Synods had "always approved 
and received the Westminster Confession of Faith, 
and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms as an ortho- 
dox and excellent system of Christian doctrine." 
And in order that there might be peace and harmony 
in the Church the second article in the Basis of Union 
was adopted as follows : 

"II. That when any matter is determined by a 
major vote, every member shall either actively con- 
cur with, or passively submit to, such determination ; 
or, if his conscience permit him to do neither, he 
shall, after sufficient liberty modestly to reason and 
remonstrate, peaceably withdraw from our com- 
munion, without attempting to make any schism. 
Provided always, that this shall be understood to 
extend to such determinations as the body shall judge 
indispensable in doctrine or Presbyterian govern- 
ment (Records of 1758, p. 286). 

In 1763, when " a Presbytery in New York govern- 
ment " asked to be received into the Synod, the Synod 
agreed to receive them on the condition " that they 
agree to adopt our Westminster Confession of Faith 
and Catechisms, and engage to observe the Directory 
as a plan of worship, discipline, and government, 
according to the agreement of this Synod " (Records, 
p. 331). 



172 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

In 1770, when the Presbytery of South Carolina 
asked to be received into the Synod, it was informed 
that it could be received on the following terms: 

" The conditions which we require, are only what 
we suppose you are already agreed in, viz., that all 
your ministers acknowledge and adopt as the stand- 
ard of doctrine the Westminster Confession of Faith 
and Catechisms, and the Directory as the plan of 
your worship and discipline." 

By requiring this subscription to its Standards 
the Presbyterian Church in Colonial days grew 
into a strong, united, harmonious ecclesiastical or- 
ganization. 

II. Let us now turn our attention to the Presbyte- 
rian Church in the United States of America. 

After the War of the Revolution had closed it was 
deemed advisable to adopt a new and more complete 
Constitution for the Church, and the Adopting Act 
of 1788 was passed by Synod with wonderful unan- 
imity. 

This Adopting Act of 1788 is a more comprehen- 
sive and specific act than that of 1729. It divided 
the Synod into four Synods ; constituted the General 
Assembly ; and also adopted the Constitution of the 
Church with its System of Doctrine, of Ecclesiastical 
Polity, its Book of Discipline, and its Directory for 
Worship. 

Let us now notice more closely what is compre- 
hended in our Church Constitution. 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 173 

1. It includes "The System of Doctrine" of the 
American Presbyterian Church. 

In the old records we find various expressions used 
to denote the Creed of the Church, such as " The 
Systems of Doctrine," " The System of Doctrines," and 
" The System of Doctrine." In the Constitution of 
the Colonial Church there were no questions em- 
bodied which were asked of licentiates, or ministers 
seeking admission to Presbytery, but a general sub- 
scription to the Standards was required of ministers ; 
but when the new Constitution of 1788 was adopted 
a series of questions was introduced, which are re- 
quired to be asked of all persons entering the minis- 
try — namely : " Do you believe the Scriptures of the 
Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, the 
only infallible rule of faith and practice ?" and " Do 
you sincerely receive and adopt the Confession of 
Faith of this Church, as containing the system of 
doctrine taught in the Holy Scripture ?" etc. 

It is a greatly mistaken notion to suppose that 
" The System of Doctrine " in the Standards of the 
American Presbyterian Church is simply a statement 
of the Five Points of Calvinism as opposed to Armin- 
ianism. The Five Points occupy a very small space 
in the Confession. 

You must go back to the days of the Westminster 
Assembly and consider what " The System of Doc- 
trine" meant at that time. Who constituted the 
combined forces against which the Assembly lined 



174 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

up " The System of Doctrine " which they believed to 
be " taught in the Holy Scriptures ?" The attempt 
made at that time was thoroughly to reform the 
Church of England, and in particular to make a clear 
statement to the world of what the members of the 
Assembly believed the Word of God distinctly taught 
as against Romanism. They also protested against 
Deism, Tritheism, Polytheism, Antinomianism, Socin- 
ianism, Unitarianism, Arianism, and Pelagianism, as 
well as against Arminianism. 

" The System of Doctrine " starts out by a protest 
against Deism, which claims that the light of Nature 
is a sufficient guide to man, and asserts the necessity 
of a revelation from God. Then " The System of Doc- 
trine " is differentiated from Roman Catholicism by 
claiming that the Word of God is of itself the only 
and infallible rule of faith and practice independent 
of tradition, and it here opposes tradition which had 
largely supplanted the authority of the divine Word. 

The next chapter on the Trinity states our faith in 
opposition to Polytheism, Unitarianism, and Antitrin- 
itarianism. Further, in the 3d chapter it teaches the 
doctrine of the divine decrees as against the views of 
the Arminians. Then, after speaking of Creation, it 
proclaims a belief in the direct Providence of God 
over his creation as opposed to Fatalism. 

But this is enough to show that " The System of 
Doctrine" is not simply the Calvinistic system of 
doctrine as opposed to Arminianism. The Calvinis- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 175 

tic system is only a part of the broad, comprehensive 
system which the Westminster Assembly believed 
the Word of God explicitly taught as antagonistic to 
the multiplied forms of error prevalent in that age. 

The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Protes- 
tant, evangelical system of Christian doctrine formu- 
lated by Reformed Calvinistic theologians, which the 
Presbyterian Church in America has always held to 
be " an orthodox and excellent system." 

The very foundation of this comprehensive system 
is that the Bible is inspired of God and is the infalli- 
ble rule of faith and practice for all men as distin- 
guished from the teachings of the Roman Catholic 
Church. 

Look at the teachings of the Confession of Faith 
on this fundamental doctrine. The Confession ex- 
plicitly makes the following declaration : 

" Under the name of Holy Scripture, or the Word of 
God written, are now contained all the books of the 
Old and New Testaments, which are these " : And 
then it names the entire sixty-six books of the Bible, 
and adds, "all which are given by inspiration, to 
be the rule of faith and life." 

The Confession then asserts that " the Holy Scrip- 
ture" ... "is the Word of God." It proceeds to 
give the arguments including " the entire perfection 
thereof," " whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself 
to be the Word of God ; yet notwithstanding, our full 
persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and 



176 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

divine authority thereof is from the inward work of 
the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the 
"Word to our hearts." It further declares that " The 
infallible rule of interpretation of scripture is the 
Scripture itself" and that " The Supreme Judge, by 
which all controversies of religion are to be deter- 
mined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient 
writers, doctrines of men and private spirits, are to 
be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, 
can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the 
Scripture." 

This latter is aimed at all ex cathedra utterances of 
the supreme pontiff and the authority of unreliable 
tradition, and declares to the world that we are to be 
guided in all matters of faith and practice by the 
infallible Word of God as contained in the sixty-six 
books of the Old and New Testaments, and the 
American Presbyterian Church has never swerved a 
hair's-breadth from these declarations of its immortal 
Constitution. 

The Word of God then becomes the divine Charter 
of the three divine institutions which we have upon 
earth : the Family, the Church, and the State, and 
it is the infallible guide for all these institutions. 

Starting with this divine Charter, our whole creed 
is settled by the allwise and loving Sovereignty of 
God. 

Some do not like creeds ; but our Church has 
always thought it fair and honorable to state explic- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. Ill 

itly what it understands the Word of God to teach. 
Our Creed then is our witness-bearer to the whole 
world. Indeed, no man can write or preach a sermon 
without stating in part his creed, and we are bound 
to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to 
the saints. At the same time our Creed is pre-emi- 
nently an irenical document, and we believe the 
clear, definite statement by the Christian denomina- 
tions of what they believe, is the very best road to 
an ultimate agreement of the churches on the funda- 
mental and essential doctrines of our holy religion. 

We reject, as if by anticipation, in this old creed 
the popular new doctrine that we are to be guided 
by our Christian consciousness. The various creeds 
of the religious world are a positive demonstration 
that Christian consciousness is utterly unreliable. 
Christian consciousness is not law, but the Word of 
God is infallible law in all matters of faith and 
practice. 

There has always been some liberty allowed in the 
subscription to our Standards which our Constitution 
requires, and the right of private judgment has 
always been recognized. 

(1) There is liberty in the Constitution itself about 
many doctrines. There is nothing said in the Con- 
stitution about supra-Lapsarianism or sub-Lapsarian- 
ism ; nothing about Creationism and Traducianism ; 
no specific theory of inspiration is there formulated ; 
nothing is said about human composition in the 
12 



178 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

psalmody of the church, or about the use of instru- 
mental music in the worship of God. No positive 
theory is laid down about the orders and classes in 
the eldership, although our denomination is expressly 
called the Presbyterian Church. Some say we have 
two orders in the eldership: teachers and rulers, 
Others say there is but one order: the preacher. 
Others say we have one order with two classes: 
teachers and rulers, as Calvin, Breckinridge, Miller, 
etc. Others say presbyters or bishops are of one 
order and one class, and that they are both teachers 
and rulers, as Hitchcock and Thompson ; and others 
hold they are all of one order and one class consti- 
tuting the rulers of the church, as Adger, Hatfield, 
and Thornwell. 

There is also great liberty allowed in regard to 
following our Directory for Worship. 

(2) There is liberty allowed in the subscription 
itself required by the Form of Government. 

The Constitution requires that all ordained officers 
of the Presbyterian Church shall " Sincerely receive 
and adopt the Confession of Faith of this church, as 
containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy 
Scriptures." 

This subscription includes the adoption of the 
Larger and Shorter Catechisms as parts of "The 
System of Doctrine " of the Presbyterian Church as 
"an orthodox and excellent system of Christian 
doctrine." 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 179 

This is not an ipsissima verba subscription, nor a 
" substance of doctrine " subscription, but " The Sys- 
tem of Doctrine," the Protestant, Calvinistic system 
of Christian doctrine subscription. 

Private church members are not required to make 
this subscription, but all ordained officers are re- 
quired to make it. A man of his own free will 
accepts this system of doctrine and adopts it, or he 
does not adopt it at all. Therefore, it is no hardship 
to a man to make this subscription. Men, in becom- 
ing members of a civil government, surrender certain 
natural rights for the benefit to be derived from the 
compact of government, and they are required to be 
subject to the laws of the government they thus 
enter. So men who join the Presbyterian Church 
become subject to the laws of the Church, and if they 
find after entering this organization that they can no 
longer believe and preach its doctrines, what then? 
From the very earliest days of our American Church 
a minister was required to state his scruples to his 
Presbytery, and the Presbytery was to decide whether 
his scruples were about " articles and points of doc- 
trine " that were regarded " essential " to the gospel 
as we understand the teachings of the Word of God, 
and if a minister could not agree with his brethren of 
the Presbytery in the Colonial Church, he was re- 
quired peaceably to withdraw from the body. This 
was the law of the Church, and it was largely drawn 
from the custom of the Reformed Dutch Church, for 



180 WESTMIXSTER ASSEMBLY 

the language, " articles and points of doctrine " here 
used, is taken from the Constitution of that Church. 

In that Constitution, edition of 1793, we find that 
a candidate for the ministry before his admission 
had to subscribe to a most solemn promise, part of 
which reads as follows: 

" We heartily believe and are persuaded that all 
the articles and points of doctrine, etc., do fully agree 
with the Word of God." " And if hereafter any diffi- 
culties, or different sentiments respecting the afore- 
said doctrine should arise in our minds, we promise 
that we will neither publicly nor privately propose, 
teach, or defend the same, either by preaching or 
writing, until we have first revealed such sentiments 
to the consistory, classis, and Synod, that the same 
may be examined ; being ready always cheerfully to 
submit to the judgment of the consistory, classis, or 
Synod, under the penalty, in case of refusal, to be 
ipso facto suspended from the office." 

The law of our Church was more liberal, and only 
required a man to peaceably withdraw from the de- 
nomination if he could not agree with its doctrines. 
It did not suspend him from his ministerial office. 

The Adopting Act of 1729 prohibited any Presby- 
tery from receiving any minister or any candidate 
for the ministry " but what declared his agreement 
in opinion with all the essential and necessary arti- 
cles of said Confession and Catechisms ;" and if any 
one had any scruples about any article he was bound 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 181 

to declare them to the Presbytery, and the Presbytery 
would determine whether the article was or was " not 
essential and necessary, in doctrine, worship, or 
government." 

(3) There has been liberty allowed in the practice 
of the Church. 

In the discussion which accompanied the effort to 
revise the Confession of Faith a few years ago, there 
were many divergent views expressed in regard to 
preterition, and the subject of elect infants, the pope 
as Anti-Christ, etc., but no trial for heresy arose out of 
those discussions. The New and Old School branches 
of the Church differed in their interpretation of our 
Standards, but they separated more on questions of 
Church methods, as did the Synod of New York and 
Philadelphia in earlier days, than upon questions of 
doctrine ; and in the Reunion in both cases the bodies 
came together upon the Standards pure and simple. 
If the churches North and South are ever united, it 
will be upon the simple basis of our common 
Standards. 

When the Constitution of 1788 was adopted the 
Presbyterian Church eliminated from the Confession 
of Faith every trace of Erastianism, and declared 
itself unequivocally in favor of civil and religious 
liberty. When the great struggle for liberty came 
the old Calvinistic Colonists declared that " God alone 
is Lord of the conscience," and their belief in the 
sovereignty of God made them fearless unto death in 



182 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

demanding for themselves and others the liberty to 
worship God according to the dictates of their own 
consciences. They demanded a complete severance 
between Church and State. The Synod of New 
York and Philadelphia was the first organic body 
of men to declare in favor of open resistance to the 
oppressive power of Great Britain. When the war 
raged and Washington was once compelled to retreat 
and he was asked where he would make his last 
stand, " He replied," says Prof. Mears, " that, if he 
were obliged to cross every river and mountain to 
the limits of civilization he would make his last 
stand with the Scotch-Irishmen of the frontiers, there 
plant his banner, and still fight for freedom." Ban- 
croft says, " A coward and a Puritan never went to- 
gether," and Froude says, " Calvinism, in one or 
other of its many forms, has borne ever an inflexible 
front to illusion and mendacity, and has preferred to 
be ground to powder like flint, rather than bend be- 
fore violence, or melt under enervating temptation." 
It is not surprising, therefore, that Washington put 
such implicit confidence in the courage and heroism 
of the Presbyterians who composed the largest part 
of his unconquerable army. When Calvinists under- 
take a revolution, they seize hold of it with a grand 
grip, and they never let go until they have carried it 
through all the convulsions of war to a glorious suc- 
cess. 

No wonder Presbyterians are proud of the bright 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 183 

banner that floats in beauty over this broad land of 
freedom. A member of the Continental Congress 
said that the blue in our banner was taken from the 
blue banner of the Old Covenanters, and it has to us, 
therefore, a precious and peculiar significance. 

Let me here express in rhyme the thought that 
burns within my soul : 

Flag of freedom, flag of blessing, 

Flag of splendor, floating high, 
Best of banners, boon of heaven, 

Gem of all beneath the sky ! 
Flag of beauty, flag of duty, 

Banner of the rights of man, 
In the march of mighty nations 

Thou dost ever lead the van. 

Flag of brave men, dearly paid for, 

How we love thy Stripes and Stars ! 
Thou didst guide our dauntless heroes 

Through our long and bloody wars. 
Flag of grandeur, flag of brightness, 

Glowing o'er the land and sea, 
Shine forever in thy glory 

O'er the brave and o'er the free. 

2. The Constitution of our Church includes a defi- 
nite, specific ecclesiastical polity. 

As the sovereignty of God settles our creed, so it 
settles our polity. As the Westminster Assembly, 
composed as it was largely of members of the Church 
of England, determined to have nothing in their 
work which could not be substantiated by the Word 



184 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

of God, it could not but reach the conclusion that 
the Presbyterian Form of Government was revealed 
in the Holy Scriptures. 

Before the days of Laud the Church of England 
received without reordination Presbyterian ministers 
from all the Reformed Churches of Europe. The 
ever-to-be-despised prelate, however, could not devise 
means cruel enough to drive Presbyterians from the 
face of the earth, but he did drive thousands of 
them from the face of England, only to establish the 
strongest and best government on the surface of the 
globe, where all men may enjoy the fullest and the 
sweetest liberty noble souls ever enjoy — the liberty to 
worship God according to the dictates of their own 
enlightened consciences. 

3. The Constitution includes a complete System of 
Discipline. There was no Book of Discipline adopted 
by the Westminster Assembly. The Synod of 1788 
made a little book of only seven pages, which it 
called "Forms of Process." This has since been 
greatly enlarged under the title, "Book of Dis- 
cipline." 

Discipline is intended to safe-guard the Church 
and the religious lives of its individual members. 
Sometimes it is said our Calvinistic theology has a 
tendency to make men indifferent as to the lives they 
live, but there never was a graver blunder. Dr. 
Chalmers said, " Wherever there has been most Cal- 
vinism, men have been most moral ; " and Froude 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 185 

says, " The practical effect of a belief is the real test 
of its soundness." 

Look at the fruits of the Calvinistic system and 
you will discover that its doctrinal belief and its 
disciplinary government have had a most happy 
effect upon the lives of its adherents. The sover- 
eignty of God settles the discipline of the Church 
and governs the lives of its members, for God is the 
Lord of the conscience. 

4. The Constitution includes a Directory for Wor- 
ship. The Westminster Assembly could not make a 
Prayer Book that would suit both the Church of Eng- 
land and the Church of Scotland, and the members 
compromised on the Directory for Worship. Here, 
too, the sovereignty of God ruled their pronuncia- 
mento, and they would require nothing of men's 
consciences which was not positively required by the 
Great Charter of their authority, the infallible Word 
of God. 

Here, then, we have our ecclesiastical Constitution 
adopted by the General Synod the same year our 
National Constitution was adopted by the United 
States. 

The American Presbyterian Church under its Con- 
stitution of 1788, which has from time to time been 
modified and amended, has had a most successful 
career. Sometimes the question is asked, Is our 
Presbyterian Church adapted to the conversion of 
the world ? Look at its complete organization, with 



186 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

its " orthodox and excellent system of Christian doc- 
trine," its representative government, its admirable 
discipline, and its simple and dignified mode of wor- 
ship, and what can be added to its Constitution to 
make it better adapted to the great purposes of 
spreading the gospel to the uttermost bounds of 
the world? 

The American Presbyterian Church is an orthodox 
Church, holding only such doctrines as are clearly 
taught in the Word of God. It is an evangelical 
Church, holding the Bible, the whole Bible, and 
nothing but the Bible to be " the very Word of 
God," the only and infallible rule of faith and 
practice. 

We hear the cry on every hand to-day, " Back to 
Christ! Back to Christ!" What does it mean? 
How do you get " back to Christ " but through the 
gateway of the inspired Word and the guiding Spirit 
of the living God? To get back to him we must get 
back to his very words as they have been written by 
his inspired apostles, study his ethical teachings, 
drink in of his spirit, meditate upon his matchless 
model of manhood, and be aroused to the grandeur 
of his atoning sacrifice for sin. Then in his name, 
by his authority, in his place, by his help, by love to 
him, by hope in him, and for his glory, preach and 
teach the everlasting gospel by word and by life ; be- 
coming living epistles of his sovereign grace known 
and read of all men. 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 187 

Our Church, it may here be appropriately said, has 
always placed great value upon catechetical instruc- 
tion. The early Church spread the truths of salva- 
tion very largely through catechetical instruction, 
and the Roman empire was Christianized in three 
centuries by this method. The Reformers, Luther, 
Knox, Zwingle, Cranmer, Ridley, the old Walden- 
sian church, exalted this mode of instruction, and 
the Westminster Assembly spent five years in pre- 
paring the Catechisms, and woe be the day to the 
Presbyterian Church when she ceases to teach the 
children of the covenant the great fundamental doc- 
trines on which she has built her splendid ecclesi- 
astical structure. Next to the Bible the world 
can spare any other book better than the Shorter 
Catechism. 

Again the American Presbyterian Church is a 
magnanimous Church. Our form of government 
and our system of doctrine both tend to develop an 
unflinching independence of character and an ardent 
love of religious liberty, and whilst our idea of the 
sovereignty of God and his lordship over men's con- 
sciences compels us to demand liberty of conscience 
for ourselves, it also compels us to demand equal 
rights and privileges for all mankind. 

The American Presbyterian Church is also a benev- 
olent Church, and it is doing more for the world's 
evangelization than all other churches in the United 
States. It is further a progressive Church, immov- 



188 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

ably determined to conquer the world for King Jesus. 
Archbishop Hughes says of our General Assembly : 
" It acts on the principle of a radiating centre, and is 
without equal or rival among the other denomina- 
tions of the country ; " and we may add that the 
General Assembly is to-day the greatest missionary 
organization upon the face of the globe. 

Again, with a creed and polity adapted to the con- 
version of the world to Christ, and to the consolida- 
tion of the churches of the world in one grand rep- 
resentative organism, our Church is bent on the 
gathering of all the friends of Christ into a glorious 
Solidarity — the Kingdom of God — embracing all the 
true followers of the King of kings ; for it believes 
that this consummated fact and this unparalleled 
glory of the Church of Christ are foreordained of 
God, and that his plan shall not be frustrated by the 
powers of darkness. 

We do not stand in idleness or despair by the 
grave of the past glory of the Kingdom. Nearly 
10,000,000 of people to-day receive and adopt the 
Westminster Standards, and with optimistic hopes 
they move forward on their world-wide mission. 

When Adoniram Judson was asked what are the 
prospects for foreign missions, his reply was given in 
words that ring like silver chimes : 

"BRIGHT AS THE PROMISES OF GOD!" 

The world is open for the sacramental host of God 
to move forward in solid and unflinching columns to 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 189 

take possession of the nations ; and we are moving 
onward with cheerful hopefulness, believing that it 
has been foreordained that the kingdoms of this 
world shall become the kingdom of our glorious 
Lord and his all-conquering Christ. 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES AND 
THE PEOPLE. 



BY 

Gen. JAMES A. BEAVER, 

EX-GOVERNOR OE PENNSYLVANIA. 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES AND 
THE PEOPLE. 

BY 

Gen, JAMES A. BEAVER, 

EX- GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Fellow Presbyterians: 

As I look into your patient faces on this great 
field day of ecclesiastical oratory, I am reminded, 
and take courage from the fact, that the climax 
of Presbyterian graces, as summed up in " the bene- 
fits which in this life do either accompany or flow 
from justification, adoption, and sanctification " is 
"perseverance therein to the end." 

We have a great history. It has been presented to 
us in a magnificent setting. How our hearts burned 
within us as we heard of the dangers met, of the 
deeds done, and of the duties performed by the goodly 
ancestors from whom we have received the rich heri- 
tage we now enjoy ! 

As you have been informed by the programme, the 
themes of the day are not all or at least not entirely 
historical. The lessous which we have learned will 
have practical value only as they strengthen us for 

13 193 



194 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

the discharge of our own duty. Mine is the privilege 
of attempting to throw the searchlight of past experi- 
ence across the pathway of the present and into the 
immediate future. I am to deal with two generic and 
comprehensive terms. They have special meaning 
as applied to each other, and are to be interpreted in 
the light of history, and especially of the history of 
which we have heard to-day. The development of 
the historical meaning and the delineation of the 
historical setting of either of these terms would 
more than exhaust the time allotted to this address. 
What we have already heard must suffice, and is 
all-sufficient in these respects. Let my words be 
plain, practical, and, as far as possible, pointed. 

The Committee of Arrangements has asked me to 
speak upon " The Presbyterian Churches and the 
People." Who are the people? Viewed from the 
standpoint of history, those who stood for the rights 
and the interests of the people have constituted a 
small minority of the mass of mankind. When 
James I. of England, with the knowledge and experi- 
ence of Scottish character and the inevitable ten- 
dency of Scottish Presbyterianism, made the emphatic 
declaration, " No bishop, no king," he announced a 
fundamental truth essential alike to monarchy and 
hierarchy. They are interdependent and mutually 
supporting. In all the long, strange story of liberty, 
written in the blood of the people during the cen- 
turies which are behind us, emperors and popes,' 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 195 

cardinals and kings, lords and bishops have 
seldom been of, and more seldom for, the people. 
Monarchy and hierarchy alike have not only 
been opposed to, but have combined to oppose 
the fundamental idea of representative popular 
government, in which the interests of the people 
should rise superior to those of the class. Now and 
again, as when the lords and barons of England ex- 
acted from King John, Magna Charta, or the Duke 
of Argyle and the lords of Scotland joined in the 
Solemn League and Covenant, class privileges have 
been held subservient to popular rights, but these 
have been exceptions which only emphasized the 
rule. Equally true is it that wealth, which through 
the ages has been for the most part concentrated in 
the hands of the church and of the so-called privi- 
leged classes, has not yet been on the side of the 
people nor used in their interests. And what is true 
of the past is equally true of the present. The de- 
votees of fashion, frivolity, and pleasure, incapable 
alike of serious thought or earnest effort, intent only 
upon self-indulgence and self-seeking, have not been 
in the past and are not now upon the side of tbe people. 
At the other extreme, ignorance and folly, penury 
and pauperism, vice and crime have been equally the 
bitter and malignant foes of the people, and have re- 
pressed and retarded the development of popular 
government, which in our day is reaching its full 
and final consummation. 



196 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

Throughout the ages the men who do and dare, 
who sacrifice and suffer, who espouse a great cause 
and die for it, are to be found between the extremes of 
organized society, among the so-called middle classes, 
— what Mr. Lincoln called the common people, — 
among the men who think first and strike afterward, 
who act not from impulse but from principle, and 
who are willing to follow principle to its legitimate 
conclusions. These, as a rule, are the sifted men who 
constitute the real people of every age, by whom the 
battles of the people have been fought, and through 
whom the sovereignty of the people has been estab- 
lished and maintained. This it is necessary to keep in 
mind in considering the theme which now demands 
our attention. 

What is Presbyterianism ? What the essentials in 
which it is grounded, and upon which its superstruct- 
ure of doctrine, government, and worship has been 
established ? 

As to doctrine. Believing in the absolute sover- 
eignty of God, it is ready to accept the legitimate 
consequences of that belief, whether they can be 
measured and understood by the finite mind or not. 
Acknowledging the divine Christ as the Head of his 
Church in the world, it accepts him as its infallible 
teacher, as its all-sufficient atonement, and as its king 
and ruler. It can, therefore, in the nature of things, 
have no other infallible teacher, has no place for a 
priest to come between it and him who offered him- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 197 

self as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and owns 
allegiance to no other ruler in spiritual things. It 
deplores man's lost estate and " the sin and misery 
into which the fall brought mankind," but rejoices in 
the estate of salvation into which he is brought by 
the only Redeemer of God's elect. It magnifies 
the work of the Holy Spirit. Although some have 
criticised its Standards, because of the lack of suffi- 
cient description and emphasis of his personality, it, 
nevertheless, recognizes his all-sufficient power in 
moving upon the hearts of men, in convincing them 
of their sin and misery, in renewing their wills, and 
in persuading and enabling them to embrace Jesus 
Christ as he is freely offered to them in the gospel. 
His is the power which is recognized by it as accom- 
panying the word which he has inspired, when read 
and preached. 

It accepts and insists upon the acceptance of the 
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the 
only infallible rule of faith and practice. It accepts 
the moral law, " as summarily comprehended in the 
Ten Commandments," as binding upon the conscience 
and the life, and emphasizes both their letter and 
their spirit as interpreted and taught by the divine 
Teacher. These and other doctrines which need not 
now be enumerated constitute its system of doctrine. 
You may call it Pauline, or Augustinian, or Calvin- 
istic. It is all of these and more. You may name 
it for Knox, or Edwards, or Hodge — for any one or 



198 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

for all three — and it will be true to name. If true, 
this system of doctrine becomes no more true, because 
expounded or enlarged upon or believed in by any 
number of the learned and godly men who have 
believed in it and died in the faith which it teaches. 
It is to be accepted and maintained and taught and 
lived, not because of its name, or because of the men 
who have believed in it and rejoiced in teaching it, 
but because it is essentially scriptural, and embodies 
in itself the unadulterated and infallible truth. 

As to government. It is, as we believe, simply 
scriptural. When the multitude of the disciples, 
under the direction of the apostles, chose Stephen 
and his compeers as their representatives to adminis- 
ter the temporalities of the Church, in order that the 
apostles might give themselves " continually to prayer 
and to the ministry of the word," they established 
both a precedent and a practice which is at once the 
germ of and the authority for the representative 
government of the Presbyterian Church. This fun- 
damental idea of elected representatives, and as a 
logical sequence, responsible representation, underlies 
the entire system of Presbyterianism which domi- 
nates not only our church government but has been 
imparted, largely through the influence of those who 
were Presbyterians, to our civil government as well. 

As to the order of its worship. Protesting against 
ritualistic mummery, it may for the time have swung 
to the opposite extreme, but in its provisions for the 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 199 

service of praise and of prayer, for the reading and 
the preaching of the Word, and for the service of God 
by offerings, it denies nothing which is enjoined by 
Scripture, and offers to all men everywhere, in the 
language most familiar to them, an order of worship 
which in its practical effect will best meet the needs 
of the worshipper, and tend by the influence of the 
Holy Spirit to build him " up in holiness and com- 
fort, through faith, unto salvation." 

It will be seen from this short review of its funda- 
mental character, especially as to church govern- 
ment, what the people have done for Presbyterianism. 
It will also be seen, upon very slight reflection, that 
the relations between the people and Presbyterianism 
are reciprocal. If the people, as the outcome of a 
long and bloody contest, secured a representative 
government, it must be confessed that the Presby- 
terian Church has not only been true to its scriptural 
doctrinal standards, but has endeavored to teach the 
people the essential truths of representative govern- 
ment for the Church, and, as the outcome thereof 
and incidental thereto, of a free, representative gov- 
ernment for all mankind. It would be interesting 
to enlarge upon this statement and to give the proofs 
thereof, particularly as they relate to the organization 
and adoption of constitutional, representative govern- 
ment in our own country, but time fails me, for we 
must consider, as the more important and practical 
part of this address : — 



200 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

The obligations which grow out of the relations 
between the Presbyterian Churches and the people. 
If the Presbyterian Church in doctrine, in government, 
and in order, has divine authority for what it believes 
and teaches, it rests and must of necessity rest upon an 
infallible Word, and this Word must be maintained 
in its integrity. Multitudes of men and women 
profoundly believe that the word of God which is 
contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New 
Testaments is divinely inspired, and is the only 
infallible rule of faith and practice, and the man 
who undertakes designedly to undermine or in 
thoughtless ignorance attempts to destroy that faith, 
is an enemy of his kind, and the Church which per- 
mits it to be done or aids and abets in his doing so, 
is no longer worthy the confidence and respect of its 
constituency. It should, as it undoubtedly will, be 
left to the ways of its own devising and be driven to 
wander in the barren wastes of its utter faithlessness. 
It is barely possible for a man, by much study, to 
make himself so mad as to believe that two and two 
make five. Granted that it is possible for him to 
believe in this absurdity, yet when he comes to preach 
it to the common, hard-headed, thinking Presbj r - 
terians who know that two and two make four, he 
will find himself bereft of a following, and the Church 
which permits it will find itself, as it ought, destitute 
of a constituency. If the Presbyterian Churches are 
mindful of their obligations to the people, they will 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 201 

be true to that system of sound doctrine formulated 
and promulgated by the learned Assembly of which 
we have heard so much to-day, and which in its es- 
sentials finds expression in that logical and matchless 
compendium which we call the Shorter Catechism. 
Just here we may well consider whether it may 
not be necessary for the Presbyterian Churches to go 
backward before they can go forward. May it not 
be well to retrace our steps and pick up some of the 
strong threads of the warp of Presbyterianism which 
have been dropped, and weave upon them that strong 
web of faith and duty which serves alike as a sure 
repose from the disquiet within, and as a defence from 
the elements of doubt and discord from without. I 
mean by this that it will not do to rely upon the 
Sabbath-School, the Christian Endeavor Society, or 
any other agency to take the place of the old and 
time-honored custom of family instruction in the 
standards of the Church. If we could restore the 
old-fashioned family instruction in the Shorter Cate- 
chism, which led in many families to what is known 
as " the passing of the question " — that is, giving the 
answer to the question previously asked and asking 
the next question in order, in the Catechism, without 
book and without reminder, we might dismiss all 
apprehension as to the effect of the rather ancient 
and flat, if not exploded, theories of German ration- 
alism and doubt which are being re-hashed and dealt 
out to us, under the guise of modern learning and 



202 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

research. More systematic training of the young in 
the fundamentals of Presbyterianism will mean less 
of theological vagaries in the old. 

If the Presbyterian Church be true to itself and 
to the people whom it represents, it must keep " pure 
and entire all such religious worship and ordinances 
as God hath appointed in his word, expressly one 
whole day in seven to be a holy Sabbath to him- 
self." It is necessary to have not only an order of 
worship, but a time for worship, and, whilst we 
may be busied not unwisely about responsive read- 
ings and other means of popularizing the worship 
of God in the sanctuary, let us remember, as a 
truth to be practised in our own living and to be 
taught from the pulpit and the teacher's chair, in 
church, in Sabbath-School, and in the home, that 
" the Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all 
that day, even from such worldly employments and 
recreations as are lawful on other days, and spending 
the whole time in the public and private exercises of 
God's worship, except so much as is to be taken up 
in the works of necessity and mercy." This is very 
old-fashioned doctrine. It smacks, to those of you 
who recognize it, of the Westminster Assembly ; but, 
if there is anything which the churches of to-day, 
Presbyterian as well as those of other names, need to 
have reiterated and emphasized, it is this old-fash- 
ioned truth in regard to the observance of the 
Sabbath. 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 203 

It is hardly necessary to say, and yet this is not an 
altogether inopportune time to say it, that the Presby- 
terian Church owes it to the people to maintain in its 
integrity and to be unswervingly true to its repre- 
sentative system of government. This, being inter- 
preted, means that the representatives of the people 
must govern. I am not one of those who apprehend 
great danger from the growth and increasing influ- 
ence of our so-called church institutions, but it is 
nevertheless true that institutions, as individuals, are 
like Jeshurun; when they wax fat, they kick. Our 
representative government is so organized theoreti- 
cally and so administered in practice, that we have 
little to fear from this source, if the Church's repre- 
sentatives are true to themselves and their constitu- 
ents. The remedy for supposed evils in this direc- 
tion is in the hands of the people, and, at the very 
first intimation of centralization or dictation, it is the 
duty of the representatives of the people to demand 
of the servants of the Church absolute and uncondi- 
tional subserviency to their will. 

I have no desire to trench upon the subjects of 
those who are to come after me, but the presentation 
of the obligations of the Presbyterian Church to the 
people would be manifestly incomplete without at 
least a reference to the subject of education. Our 
Church for many years led in the facilities which it 
afforded for higher education. It has lost first place 
in this respect and now occupies third or fourth place. 



'204: WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

If Presbyterianism is to be true to itself as well as 
faithful to its constituency, it must bring a liberal 
education within the reach of all who desire to secure 
such an education. More than that, it must carry 
education, as it carries the gospel, to the masses. 
It is true now, as it has always been, that the pres- 
ence of the facilities for securing begets the desire to 
secure a liberal education. Log colleges such as were 
planted by the Tennents in eastern Pennsylvania and 
by MacMillan in western Pennsylvania, are not to be 
duplicated or multiplied as such, but what they were in 
their day, to their generation, must be established in 
our day, for our generation, in every locality where 
there is a constituency which can support, or which is 
likely to be able to support such an institution. The 
small college not only brings education within the 
reach of many who would otherwise be deprived of the 
opportunity to secure it, but in the judgment of very 
many educators and practical men, it does more for 
the development of manly men, and for fitting its 
students for the practical work of this practical age, 
than the so-called great university. I make no plea 
for the university. It can take care of itself. If the 
Presbyterian Church believes in itself and in what it 
teaches, it must educate its own sons and daughters 
in the future, as in the past, in its own institutions of 
learning, planted in the immediate neighborhood of 
those who are to be educated. My plea, therefore, is 
for the establishment of the small college, wherever 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 205 

there may be reasonable assuraoce of support, through 
the agency of the youngest of our Boards, the import- 
ance of whose work and the efficient and conservative 
character of what has been already accomplished, be- 
ing apparently but little known and appreciated by 
the Church at large. The means for the prosecution 
of its work should be multiplied immediately, at least 
tenfold. 

I may not speak of missions after what has been 
said in this Assembly and what is to be said this 
evening from this platform. It would seem as if the 
Presbyterian Church was taking a new grasp of the 
subject and was to carry forward its work both at 
home and abroad with more of energy and efficiency 
than ever before. This must be so if Presbyterianism 
is to maintain itself as an aggressive force in doing its 
share in Christianizing the world. Through our mis- 
sionary agencies the Church is to come into close and 
intimate touch with the masses of the people to whom 
it has a God-given mission. Through our home mis- 
sionaries especially we are to come into touch w T ith 
and train the conservative forces in the newer parts of 
our country which under God are to preserve to the 
nation, as an example to the world, the free repre- 
sentative government for which the Presbyterian 
Church so conspicuously stands. 

Time fails me to speak of the duty of our churches 
of the Presbyterian faith to the exceptional popula- 
tions, which have grown up in our midst and are 



206 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

thrust upon us from without ; of the agencies which 
have been established by the wisdom of the Church 
in the past for reaching some of these exceptional 
races and peoples to whom we undoubtedly have a 
mission and for whom we are responsible ; of those 
other beneficent agencies whose province it is to 
found Sabbath-schools and supervise the teaching 
of our young people therein; which help to build 
churches and manses in new and destitute places; 
which assist in the education of young men for the 
ministry; and which care all too insufficiently for 
those faithful servants of the Church who have borne 
the burden and heat of the day, and for the de- 
pendent ones of those who have laid down their 
lives in its service for the help of mankind. These 
agencies, established by the wisdom of the Church 
and maintained by its beneficence, afford the means 
through which we as Christians are to bear "one 
another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ," 
and thus, by the sacrifice of self and through the joy 
of service, to provide for our own "spiritual nourish- 
ment and growth in grace." 

In this connection need it be said — alas ! that it 
should be necessary to be said — the Church owes it 
to its own membership to cultivate and stimulate by 
all the means within its power the grace of systematic 
giving. If Christian giving be a Christian grace, 
and if the manner of its exercise is taught in the 
Scriptures, it is clearly the duty of the Church to 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 207 

make it the subject of study in our theological schools 
and of regular instruction from our pulpits. The 
great majority of the teaching elders of the Presbyte- 
rian Church, either do not believe that Christian giv- 
ing is a Christian grace or do not teach what they 
believe. Our beneficent agencies languish and lack 
funds, not because our people lack interest in them 
or fail to respond to the proper presentation of their 
claims, but because, as a Church, we are slip-shod and 
faithless in our teachings generally, as to the funda- 
mental question which was the subject of the exhorta- 
tion of the apostle Paul to the Corinthian Church, 
when he said : " See that ye abound in this grace 
also." If the treasuries of our beneficent agencies 
are to be kept filled to the point of their needs, and 
are to be ready to meet the increasing demands which 
are made upon our distinctively missionary agencies, 
so admirably adapted in design and execution for 
the work which they have to do, it will only be when 
there is a general awakening in the Church to the 
necessity for systematic teaching in regard to system- 
atic giving, and when the wise and helpful provisions 
of Chapter VI. of our present Directory of Worship, 
are put into active operation and cease to be practi- 
cally a dead letter in our standards. 

I would be untrue to the promptings of my heart 
did I not make allusion to the flag of our country 
which is displayed in such profusion all about me. 
Its presence is profoundly significant at this time. 



208 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

The men who wore the blue and the men who wore 
the gray a generation ago, are marching shoulder to 
shoulder beneath its folds in a common effort to repress 
cruelty, injustice, and wrong, and to bring the uplift of 
hope and freedom to an oppressed people. In this we 
cannot but rejoice, yea, and do rejoice. Miles and Lee, 
Brooke and Wheeler, and those whom they represent, 
march together in a common cause, beneath the Stars 
and Stripes ! But where are the divided hosts of Pres- 
byterianism ? Shall they gather again under its blue 
banner, surmounted by the blood-stained banner of 
the Cross ? Oh, for the time when our brethren of 
the South and we of the North may see eye to eye, 
and join in the discharge of the obligations which 
are common to us all ! Is it possible that love of 
country is a more potent influence than the love of 
Christ in bringing men together in a common ser- 
vice, and in making of one heart and of one mind 
those who were erstwhile alienated and estranged? 
It would seem to be so. Shall it continue so to be ? 
We may not be able by direct effort to change pres- 
ent conditions, but we may be ready to respond in- 
stantly and lovingly to any intimation from any 
source that it is desirable and becoming " for breth- 
ren to dwell together in unity." We may be de- 
voutly solicitous that the Holy Spirit by his pres- 
ence in all hearts may hasten the time when all 
branches of the Church of like faith and order may 
unite, under one denominational banner, in waging 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 209 

the aggressive warfare which is to evangelize the 
nations and prepare the world for the universal 
reign of the Prince of Peace. 

Fathers and brethren, the quarter millenium be- 
hind us is history. We can do little more than re- 
count it and profit by its lessons. The quarter mil- 
lenium before us is to us scarcely a prophecy. It 
has possibilities. Are we awake to them? It has 
obligations. Are we equal to them ? In the little 
portion of it allotted to us, we are to make history. 
How shall those who come after us write it ? God pays 
his tribute of respect to us, as the crown of his crea- 
tion, by trying us, by testing us, by placing responsi- 
bility upon us. Shall history write of us, in the 
administration of the great trust which has been 
committed to our keeping, what we have this day 
written of the fathers — faithful, true, tried and not 
found wanting? 

14 



THE PRESBYTEBIAN CHUECHES 
AND EDUCATION. 



BY 

Gen. JOHN EATON, LL. D., 

EX-U. S. COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES AND 
EDUCATION. 

BY 

Gen, JOHN EATON, LL. D., 

EX-U. S. COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. 



The celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth 
Anniversary of the Westminster Assembly may well 
include the consideration of the Presbyterian Churches 
and Education ; for 

First, education prepared the members of the As- 
sembly for the formulation of their remarkable utter- 
ances; second, Presbyterian Churches have existed 
since, by reason of the education of their members 
in these truths. 

We can neither pause to dwell on the scope in- 
tended in the use of the term Presbyterian Churches, 
nor to discuss the definition of Education. Only so 
much of the opinions or character of any present 
generation can continue in the future as may be con- 
veyed by education. Presbyterian Churches are such 
only by reason of their distinctive belief and conduct ; 
the only means of their perpetuity is education ; they 
must educate or perish ; they must preserve their 

213 



214 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

purity and soundness by education or become cor- 
rupted and change their character ; they must pre- 
possess mind by right education or it may be given 
such a twist by error that the truth cannot reach the 
soul through which the Holy Spirit operates for con- 
version and sanctification. 

The felicitous phrase used by George Peabody, 
u Education, a debt due from present to future gener- 
ations," which he so far repaid in the gift of his mil- 
lions, for Presbyterian Churches must mean more 
than the gift of wealth — must mean all they can 
accomplish by the gift of wealth, by prayers and 
worship, by preaching and teaching, and by the force 
of example in educating future generations in their 
beliefs and form of worship. This power of educa- 
tion is incomparably the greatest in youth : " As the 
twig is bent, the tree is inclined." Then habits, a 
second nature, are formed ; then man is impressible 
as clay, but after he has passed through the heat of 
experience, change is difficult, as pottery can only be 
changed by breaking. Indeed, education is the 
greatest power intrusted to man. By it he masters 
himself and shapes the characters of his fellows, and 
gains the science and skill by which he, for his use 
and purposes, increases the beauty of flowers, im- 
proves the fruit of the trees, controls animals, fills 
valleys and removes mountains, invokes the power 
of chemical affinity and of steam, commands the 
lightning, and transforms the rudeness of nature to 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 215 

his comfort and pleasure. God alone creates, but 
education, next in power to creation, God shares with 
man, and imposes upon him the duty of performing 
his part. In discharging his responsibility, man 
opposes a plan of his own to that of God. In man's 
plan, he seeks his own end ; God's plan is complete, 
man's imperfect or partial ; God's plan requires the 
surrender of the human will ; to this man objects. 
Doing his best unaided, man is conscious of two dis- 
couraging facts : the one that he comes short of real- 
izing his own best thought, and the other, that for 
his wrong-doing sacrifice is needed, and his reason 
does not disclose how that required sacrifice is pro- 
vided. 

Never before has so much attention been given to 
education as now. Assyria and Babylon preserve in 
their ruins some indication of their systems. Egypt 
tells of its culture by its pyramids and the winding 
sheets of its dead ; Greece reveals its excellence in 
art, and Rome in law. Their religion was the cen- 
tral thought and force in their teaching, but there 
was nothing of the true God and the Messiah. Even 
in Rome, the husband and father exercised a cruel 
supremacy over the wife and child to the taking of 
life ; the defective child might be thrown out as so- 
cial waste. We hear much of the ideal philosophy 
of Plato and the Socratic method of questioning. 
Aristotle, to whom modern education is so greatly 
indebted, gave morals a subordinate place in his 



216 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

ethics and treated woman as dwarfed man. To-day, 
by the influence of Christian teaching, it is seen that 
all are susceptible of education, and if a cause is to 
be carried, a submerged class or a degraded race to 
be elevated, or a nation to be born in a day, edu- 
cation is invoked. So greatly has its force recently 
multiplied that 1870 is said to mark a new epoch. 
Vast sums of money are expended for it, and its 
literature has increased without parallel. But no 
human treatise on education equals the Bible; all 
there is of merit elsewhere is contained in it; all 
principles and methods must be tested by it. All 
who would elevate mankind emphasize high aims; 
" Excelsior " is their motto. Much is made of Emer- 
son's advice — " Hitch your wagon to a star." But 
the Scriptures bid us aim above all stars, and take 
hold on the throne of God. In physical education, 
man's body is to become the temple of the living 
God, his intellect is to think the thoughts of God, 
and his spirit to awake in the divine likeness. No 
race presents such an illustration of the power of 
education as the Hebrew, which amid whatever envi- 
ronment, civil or religious, to this day preserves its 
distinct characteristics; the covenants made with 
them by the Almighty included posterity ; the conse- 
cration of the child was to be marked by a special 
sign, and his inquiries in regard to observances and 
symbols were to be answered whether at home or by 
the way. But this careful nurture was so perverted 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 217 

that when the Messiah, foretold by their prophets 
and emphasized by the instruction in their home and 
church, came among them and gave unmistakable 
signs of his presence, they knew him not. The 
obligations imposed on man by the divine law, either 
in the training of the child or otherwise, were not so 
much the acquisition of science, or wealth, or station, 
as conduct, conduct as piety toward God and duty to 
man ; the training of man's moral and spiritual 
nature was to be supreme. The revelations and the 
symbols used for the training of the infant race are 
marvellously adapted to the instruction of the infant 
mind. The coming of our Lord was to light ever}^ 
man ; form was nothing without the spirit. He 
taught as never man taught ; the fatherhood of God 
and the brotherhood of man were revealed as never 
before ; above the precepts of all teachers he declared, 
" Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, 
do ye even so to them." There was to be no mediator 
between God and man save the Son, Jesus Christ. 
The prophetic symbols and promises were fulfilled ; 
the Lamb was in verity slain, the innocent for the 
guilty ; thus the way of pardon was opened ; by faith 
in him the sense of unforgiven sins could be removed; 
and no man, woman, or child in the two thousand 
years since who has sought offered pardon has failed 
of relief. Infinite aid was offered to make the effort 
of every one effectual ; faithful endeavor, however 
short-coming, was assured of final triumph. The 



218 WESTMIXSTEB ASSEMBLY 

doctrine of immortality was brought to light, and 
the ground of man's faith in it made clear by Christ's 
resurrection and ascension. His offer of salvation 
was made to all without distinction of sex, or age, or 
other conditions. 

The scientific agnostic, when he has exhausted his 
assignment of the elements of human nature to the 
category of industry and to the category of his self- 
protection and the like, finds a residuum looking to 
worship, and has begun to assign these elements 
which he finds universal in man's nature to the cate- 
gory of religion, and when he has done this he must, 
to give man a complete education — that is, to make 
the most of him — and to be consistent, provide for the 
training of these elements or for religious education. 

When the Educational Commission connected with 
the Japanese Embassy-extraordinary to our country 
was puzzled by the part they saw women taking as 
teachers and pupils in our schools, apparently no 
explanation received by them was so satisfactory as 
the statement that according to our religion the pro- 
vision of salvation was through an atoning Saviour, 
the same for man and woman. He died for her as 
well as for man ; her soul in his sight was equal to 
that of man, and, therefore, opportunity for prepa- 
ration was required by her as well as by man. The 
institutions which the old dispensation had indicated 
were founded in man's nature and the divine order ; 
the family and the State were sanctified anew. Thirty 



ANNIVERSA R Y ADDRESSES. 219 

of the thirty-three years of Christ's short life were given 
in faithful service to his father and mother that he 
might teach the importance of the family. The 
child he took in his arms and blessed, and he rebuked 
the conceit of those older by declaring that they must 
become as little children in their humility, confidence, 
and teachableness. He taught the duty of obedience 
to civil law even when perverted; he wrought a 
miracle to pay tribute to the wicked Csesar. In 
obedience to his command, his followers went forth 
to educate the world in his doctrine by voice and 
pen, and the witness of effectual aid was given by 
Pentecostal outpouring of the spirit. The new testa- 
ment of his grace was closed with the inspired words 
of his disciples. The canon of the Scriptures was 
completed. The ups and downs of education during 
the epoch of the gospel and the epoch of the Refor- 
mation would be found related as cause to effect in 
the rise and fall of empires. 

Presbyterian conceptions of God and man are so 
adapted to human development and so require it 
that, when in these historic periods they approach 
nearest to supremacy in their direction of human 
thought, there is to be found, as a legitimate result in 
their direction of man's training, the best education 
whether a man is considered individually or socially. 
The assumption of worldly power by the bishops of 
Rome and Constantinople covered a multitude of 
sins, and by their compromises with paganism intro- 



220 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

duced many of the worst evils of pagan education 
into the instruction given under their authority. 
Teachers of a pure gospel depended upon their per- 
sonal influence ; the schools of the early fathers cul- 
minated in the instruction at Alexandria; of the 
four great fathers of the Latin Church, Ambrose, 
Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory, each has exerted a 
great educative influence down to our time, but none 
of them a greater in his day or since than Augustine, 
whose views in regard to fundamental doctrines so 
nearly agree with those of the Presbyterian Churches. 
For a long period the trivium and quadrivium 
reigned supreme in higher courses of study. 

The school of the castle arose over against the 
monastery ; great teachers appeared, and under their 
influence, universities sprang into existence and began 
to exert a power of their own upon the course of in- 
struction ; the fall of Constantinople sent the teachers 
of Greek philosophy throughout Europe; and the 
Renaissance, glorified by the poetry of Dante and 
the art of Michael Angelo and Raphael, brought in 
the Reformation of Luther, a synonym for education, 
in which appear Melancthon and Erasmus and others 
— a splendid galaxy of names. The Roman Catholic 
Church responded to the influences of the Reforma- 
tion with the schools of the Jesuits, which Pascal de- 
clared, "taught that the end justifies the means." 
Within the Roman Catholic Church, the brothers of 
Port Royal made a splendid attempt to purify the 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 221 

faith and practice of the church. Fenelon was a 
type of their teachers. The Burger Schools did an 
important work. 

Knox, in Scotland through the Kirk, organized a 
system of education which has kept Scotland in the 
front to this day. In the Netherlands, all the people 
were reading the Bible in the vernacular six years 
before Luther's translation was completed ; Calvin, in 
addition to working out his great system of doctrines, 
was a teacher, and organized education in Geneva. 
So far as his doctrines were accepted, the churches 
favored education. For four centuries before the 
Westminster Assembly, the Universities of Oxford 
and Cambridge admitted to their privileges all Eng- 
lishmen save Dissenters. Every appearance of the 
Bible in connection with instruction was a sign of 
human purification and elevation. Its translation 
by Wycliffe, Coverdale, and Luther began to pervade 
the philosophies accepted in the schools, and the 
principles of conduct in common life. In teaching 
its doctrine of man and God, martyrs multiplied. 

Out of the education thus afforded, profoundly 
studying the struggle of man with the evils of sin, 
the members of the Westminster Assembly came to 
their great task, and were enabled to set aside the 
false ideas and practices — the subterfuges regarding 
man and the superstitions regarding God — and in treat- 
ing these great fundamental facts came back from all 
the wanderings of human deceit and speculation to 



9 k >? 



WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 



the simplicity of the truth, and solemnly declared, 
" The Word of God, which is contained in the Scrip- 
tures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only 
rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him." 
From these Scriptures they are enabled to affirm that 
"Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy 
Him forever ; " thus in the simplest terms to embody 
this great truth which no human philosophy has 
been able to invalidate in its study of man's destiny. 
All worship but that of the one living and true God 
is swept away. Man's triumphant attainment in 
righteousness is not found in any self-perfectability, 
as announced by Rousseau ; but " Effectual calling is 
the work of God's Spirit ; whereby, convincing us of 
our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the 
knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, He 
doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, 
freely offered to us in the Gospel." The door is 
opened to infinite possibilities ; man's fear of a way 
closed by sin and of his own failure of accomplish- 
ment are both overcome; he is taught by the Spirit 
and led by it to the use of his powers for new and 
holy ends ; nothing which he can do for himself is 
done for him. We can see how these doctrines in 
their application to all human activities include what 
is described by the term " education," and where in 
the exercise of human responsibility there is room 
for differences of opinion. 

We should never forget that the Westminster As- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 223 

sembly did its work during four years of the troubled 
period of the Long Parliament ; royalty going to the 
gallows and manhood coming to sovereignty. Should 
we look in upon the Assembly, we should recognize 
the influence of the Presbyterian demand for a 
learned and godly ministry, and that the form of 
Presbyterian Church government had favored their 
selection in the preparation of so many of its mem- 
bers for their duties. Perchance, we look in when 
the Committee on the Catechism reported to the 
Committee of the Whole that they failed to agree 
upon a satisfactory answer to the question — " "What is 
God ? " and Gillespie, the youngest member, is called 
upon to lead in prayer for the special aid of the Di- 
vine Spirit, and when he began with the words, " 
God, who art a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchange- 
able in thy being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, 
goodness, and truth," the body already began to feel 
that the desired answer was sent. We should be 
convinced that the great Assembly had been taught 
in the Scriptures and had learned the doctrine of 
prayer, and enjoyed the spiritual benefit of its con- 
stant observance. Thus they were enabled to em- 
body in human expression this Bible view of the 
processes of salvation — pre-eminently educational. 
Shortly, the reaction began in England, and Presby- 
terians to the number of one hundred and forty were 
expelled from Parliament, and England waited two 
centuries for her great educational revival. 



224 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

Comenius, the great Moravian Bishop, lifted up a 
marvellous light, which for a time illumined the 
principles and methods of education which he would 
adapt to the several periods of man's growth. He 
would use the object or the picture in connection 
with the word, and thus lead the thought through 
the senses up to abstract reasoning ; he would educate 
every boy and girl and thus prepare for a Church 
united and universal, and for nations fit for respon- 
sibility in secular affairs; he would have brought 
education back to biblical methods ; he would have 
the mother school in every family for every child 
until six, urged prayer for it before it was born, and 
rebuked any slight of it by its mother. Neither the 
farming-out of infancy nor the making of an exhi- 
bition of it for the gratification of parental pride or 
the admiration of friends found any favor with him ; 
he emphasized the idea that the Bible not only gives 
the right view of the child but of the family in 
which it is placed, and enforced its integrity and 
purity. Could his scheme have been adopted by 
England, as desired by Milton and Hartlib, or had 
he come to our own Harvard, as suggested, and car- 
ried out his plans, we should to-day have been im- 
measurably in advance of where we are ; but, unfortu- 
nately, he was soon forgotten, and the old, unnatural, 
abstract methods for elementary instruction remained, 
and generations have suffered from the consequences. 

We must remember that other denominations so far 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 225 

as they accept the Calvinistic action of the West- 
minster Assembly share with Presbyterian Churches 
the results of its influences on education. 

In the movement of Presbyterians from the old to 
the new world, they brought with them not only 
their notion of Christian doctrine, but also the prin- 
ciples and customs of education which prevailed in 
the country from which they came. There was 
among them a general admission of the importance 
of child training and that parents had special obliga- 
tions in this regard. We cannot pause to trace their 
diversities. We may say there was a great agree- 
ment that the offer of salvation should be extended 
to every one, and therefore there should be provided 
for each so much of instruction as would enable him 
to avail himself of the means of salvation. We first 
find the term " free school " in the action of the East 
India Company in the early days of the Jamestown 
settlement. But Virginia waited until our own day 
for the establishment of free universal education after 
the plan that Jefferson announced a century before 
its realization. In no colony did Presbyterians so 
prevail as to enforce their special ideas of education. 

Mather declared that of the immigrants arriving 
in New England up to three years before the West- 
minster Assembly, about one-fifth were Presbyterians. 
Wherever they settled, the schoolhouse was opened 
beside the church — so much the boast in American 
history. The learned and devout clergy shared in 

15 



226 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

every hardship and braved every peril of the wilder- 
ness and savage. Their sermons stimulated the study 
of the Bible, led the reflections of the sturdy men and 
women — of the women as they cared for their homes, 
and the men as they hewed down the forest and stood 
guard against the savage, and thus they awakened 
the thought, formed the minds, and built the charac- 
ters of those who initiated, defined, defended, and con- 
firmed our liberties. 

The course of events in America, to which the utter- 
ances of the Westminster Assembly have constantly 
contributed through the Puritan and Covenanter, has 
resulted so that the form of organization and direc- 
tion of education are divided in the main between 
the Church and the State; first, the church or churches 
charged with the preservation of the oracles of God 
acknowledge the duty of training man therein as the 
means of saving his soul ; second, the State for its own 
preservation assumes the responsibility of preparing 
man to discharge his duty as a citizen or as an officer 
when called to rule over his fellows. Thus the coun- 
try receives whatever advantage may arise from their 
competition in excellence or public favor. Compar- 
ing their buildings and equipment, their text-books 
and teachers, their methods of instruction and discip- 
line, we find those of Church and State much the 
same. 

The story of the efforts of Presbyterian Churches 
in America to found institutions of learning would 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 227 

furnish a romantic chapter in educational history. 
Rev. William Tennent, a man of learning and devout 
piety, in 1726, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, twenty 
miles north of Philadelphia, opened a school for the 
better training of young men for the ministry. Rev. 
George Whitfield, the distinguished evangelist, who 
shared with Tennent the desire to elevate the charac- 
ter of the clergy and increase the spirituality of the 
churches, said after a visit, "The place where the 
young men study is called in contempt a ' Log Col- 
lege.' " " It was about twenty feet long and near as 
many broad." " The logs were hewn for it on the 
spot." From this humble beginning what vast 
consequences followed to Presbyterian education ? 
Thence came Princeton, preparing its great array 
of officers for the churches and for civil duties. In 
spite of the limitations and distresses of poverty, the 
hardships of pioneer life, multiplied by the threaten- 
ing savagery of the Indian, the graduates of Princeton 
went out to found other like institutions in the wil- 
derness, Smith to establish Prince Edward Academy, 
which in the year of American Independence became 
Hampden-Sidney College, named in honor of those 
defenders of liberty; Graham laid the foundations 
of Liberty Hall. The State of Virginia voted George 
Washington one hundred improvement bonds as a 
token of its gratitude for his eminent services. These 
bonds he refused to appropriate to his own use and 
donated them to Liberty Hall, which thereupon en- 



228 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

tered upon its enlarged sphere as Washington Col- 
lege, now Washington and Lee University. The 
efforts of McMillan in Western Pennsylvania resulted 
in Jefferson College. Doak, a native of Virginia, 
with his Princeton diploma, carrying the books for 
his library on horseback across the mountains, settled 
on the Holston before that territory was transferred 
from North Carolina and constituted a part of Ten- 
nessee, and there established Washington College, 
which contends with Transylvania for recognition as 
the first college opened in the Mississippi Valley. 
The sturdy Scotch-Irish of North Carolina are speci- 
ally honored for the defense of their homes in the 
Revolutionary struggle and for the Mecklenburg De- 
claration ; for most of their preparation they were 
indebted to a learned and devout ministry who in- 
structed them in their homes or in various academies 
established by their self-sacrificing efforts. 

Presbyterian ministers shared with Puritans in 
New England in administering the public school 
system. The} 7 did their share in founding academies 
and in establishing the early colleges — Yale, Har- 
vard, Brown, Princeton, Dartmouth, and others, and 
the churches and presbyteries sustained them in their 
efforts. The insertion in the Ordinance of 1787 of 
the clause enforcing the duty of education and pro- 
viding the means for it in the gift of the sixteenth 
section of land for common schools and two town- 
ships for universities, is credited to Manasseh Cutler, 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 229 

another Calvinistic clergyman. Rev. Samuel Wood, 
of Boscawen, New Hampshire, in addition to his in- 
structive labors in the pulpit, fitted eighty young 
men for college, including Daniel and Ezekiel Web- 
ster, besides teaching many students in theology. 
What these learned and devout ministers did for 
education up to the inauguration of our Constitu- 
tional Government, their successors in the genera- 
tions following have done for the vast regions west, 
the Mississippi Valley, the Rocky Mountain Regions, 
and the Pacific Slope. They have been pre-eminently 
the leaders holding aloft the Stars and Stripes and 
the Banner of the Cross, planting the church and the 
school. Dr. Whitman, a Presbyterian, in honor of 
whose memory a college is now erected, by his peril- 
ous ride in midwinter across the mountains, and 
plains, and frozen rivers, through the deep snows 
and the blinding storms, and by leading in return a 
train of immigrants, saved to our flag an empire on 
the Pacific. Nor has the chapter of these great heroes 
ended. Our own generation is blest with a mission- 
ary who in the variety and vastness of his labors and 
in their influence upon education surpasses them all, 
and our Church has properly manifested its apprecia- 
tion of this fact by his elevation to the most honor- 
able office in its gift. 

We must not overlook the educating influence of 
the Church itself upon its own members. A careful 
statement indicates that Americans have so improved 



230 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

their liberty of worship that there are among us fifty 
sects, and a looser authority counts a hundred. 

This is the day of new organizations, clubs, and 
societies almost beyond number, with all sorts of ob- 
jects and of every name, for men, women, and chil- 
dren. But man has never devised any organization 
equal to the Church in its educating and uplifting 
power. This is the form selected by our Lord for his 
followers, through which they were to disciple the 
world ; in their great differences of doctrine and 
form of worship, there will be found corresponding 
differences in educating power. There are still those 
who would cling to the union of Church and State ; 
those who affirm that ignorance is the mother of de- 
votion ; that the Bible is not for common believers : 
that education is for the few : that the sermon should 
count for little; and others that the preacher should 
lift up his voice without preparation and speak as he 
is moved ; others would prescribe forms to be followed 
so exactly that they may all be gone through with- 
out either interest or heart on the part of hearer or 
preacher. The adherents of each will claim superi- 
ority for their own ; we would disparage none. 

Presbyterians by universal consent stand for intel- 
ligence. This standing has been the occasion for 
criticism, but we notice as time goes on objection 
gives way to approval. Presbyterians believe that 
not only their doctrine but their form of worship and 
polity find authority in the primitive church. Pres- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 231 

byterians always encourage the reverent use of reason, 
not its diseased, unbalanced, or insane use, destructive 
of reason itself, any more than they encourage that 
misuse of the body which brings disease and death. 
They invite to membership all believers who accept 
Christ as their Saviour, and are ready to be baptized 
in his name, and to conform their lives to his pre- 
cepts. They hold to the perseverance of all true be- 
lievers and make no provision in their theories for 
lapses in practice. They contemplate no giving of 
youth to the sowing of wild oats. Parents indicate 
their acceptance of the old and new covenant by 
bringing their children to baptism, thus consecrating 
them in infancy and promising to train them for the 
service of the Lord, in which all their brethren agree 
to join, confirming their promise by public sign. 
Shortcomings in these covenanted duties are most 
disastrous. Here may be found the greatest defects in 
the education practised by the Presbyterian Churches. 
The Church thus constituted, what association for 
the sake of companionship can equal it? Or for re- 
form of any condition of evil, intemperance, impurity, 
dishonesty in fulfilling private or public trusts, what 
can .invoke stronger motives? Is any improvement 
proposed, intellectual, moral, social, civil, or spiritual, 
what combination is like it in fitness or effectiveness ? 
What observances could be better adapted to promote 
perpetuity of ideas and activity than its sacraments, 
its seasons of prayer, and its Sabbaths set apart from 



232 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

secular pursuits to worship and rest, to instruction, 
and study of the Bible and Catechism in the Sabbath- 
school and at home? What human combination 
has in view such an end, perfection in holiness, sal- 
vation from sin, the glories of immortality ? Or where 
is any other association accorded such a leader, one 
who has left behind the example of a perfect life, 
who has overcome death and the grave and ascended 
on high, and who invites all his followers to share 
with him the beatitudes of his glory? To make all 
this effective, there is the under-shepherd required 
by Presbyterians to be learned and godly, ready to 
lead, to warn and exhort, with all humility, patience, 
and tenderness. The Presbyterian Church with its 
learned and godly ministry is the school of schools 
for all its members in all their duties. By it the 
family is set apart and its members instructed ; 
wisdom in entering upon its obligations and loving 
fidelity in their discharge, enforced that it may not 
so often end in divorce ; divine precepts brought to 
bear upon the duty of each member ; the father and 
mother, the very priest and priestess, daily worship- 
ping at the altar of the home church ; and all parents 
and children under the instruction of the Church 
vieing with each other in the beauty and loving 
fidelity of their lives — what a protection and inspira- 
tion is thus thrown around the family circle, making 
the devout home the very threshold of heaven ! 
In the Church, too, every member, every worshipper 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 233 

is instructed in his civil duties ; he hears the voice 
of the divine oracles ; the moral law is laid upon his 
conscience; his patriotism is lighted by a divine 
flame, and he is stimulated to that eternal vigilance 
which is the price of liberty. The equality of church 
membership prepares him for the equality of citizen- 
ship, and the practice of the principle of representa- 
tion in Session, Presbytery, and Synod in spiritual 
affairs prepares for its application in affairs of the 
State. If he is called to rule, he should, like all be- 
lievers, rule in the fear of God. All Presbyterian 
church officers, including the pastor, are called by 
the voice of the people ; the parity of the clergy is 
fixed ; the descent of authority by the laying on of 
hands comes not by the bishop, who assumes author- 
ity over his brethren of the clergy, but through the 
chosen member of the Presbytery. 

In founding institutions of their own, academies, 
colleges, and seminaries, the most Presbyterians seek 
formally of the State is the charter necessary for 
security ; and this they ask not formally to churches 
but to individuals who are their members. Turning 
from the Log College, what a triumphant result is 
presented ! 

The Commissioner of Education, Dr. W. T. Harris, 
reports now sustained by Presbyterian Churches, in- 
cluding the Cumberland and the Northern and 
Southern Divisions, 102 academies attended by 4922 
students, or 2523 males and 2399 females ; with 



234 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

60,206 volumes in their libraries ; and grounds and 
buildings valued at §1,864,500, with an annual in- 
come of $305,110 ; with 54 colleges for men, or for 
men and women, with an attendance in the prepara- 
tory departments of 3815, or males 2360 and females 
1455; in their college classes, 4145, or males 3255 
and females 890 ; or a total in these institutions en- 
joying preparatory and college instruction of 7760, 
of whom 5615 are men and 2345 are women, with 
312,481 volumes in their libraries, and grounds and 
buildings valued at §5,779,816, and controlling pro- 
ductive funds to the amount of $5,133,295, and hav- 
ing an annual income of $469,766. Of colleges for 
women alone there are 25, with an attendance of 300 
in the elementary departments, of 846 in the prepara- 
tory, and 1618 in the college classes ; or a total at- 
tendance of 3047, with 42,184 volumes in their libra- 
ries ; and grounds and buildings valued at $1,596,075, 
with an annual income of $337,210. These three 
divisions of the Presbyterian Church maintain twenty 
theological seminaries, with 1341 young men in at- 
tendance, and 293,738 volumes in their libraries, and 
having grounds and buildings valued at $2,755,527, 
and productive funds amounting to $6,626,425. Here 
is a grand total of 17,070 students in attendance; 
708,609 volumes in libraries ; $11,995,918 in build- 
ings and grounds ; $11,759,620 in productive funds, 
and having an annual income in colleges and acad- 
emies of $1,112,081. 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 235 

Our congratulations on this occasion may not be 
the less helpful if sometimes admonitory. Grateful 
and encouraged as we should be as we compare the 
above educational work of Presbyterian Churches 
with the beginning at the Log College, we shall be 
compelled in view of the large wealth controlled by 
Presbyterians and the large share that they must 
have given of the $198,044,141, reported by the Bu- 
reau of Education, bestowed upon education since 
1870, to conclude that a great part of their gifts has 
been bestowed upon other institutions than those 
directed by Presbyterian agencies, and that they 
have not given to their own institutions as they have 
in other directions. 

There can be no question of the obligation of Pres- 
byterian Churches to maintain the purity and effici- 
ency of the instruction under their own control. We 
have seen how free from technical and formal restric- 
tions is the admission to Presbyterian membership. 
But in considering the relation of Presbyterian 
Churches to education, we should not fail to observe 
the care with which thej^ call the teacher or preacher. 
His personal piety, attainments, and beliefs must 
pass the scrutiny of his Session and be approved by 
the Presbytery. When commissioned, he is duly 
authorized to teach Presbyterian doctrines, and he is 
held by every obligation to preach no other. In as- 
suming the responsibility of his commission, the 
churches allow the largest liberty of inquiry, but in 



236 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

accordance with principles most common in all the 
affairs of men, either religious or secular, they hold 
the teacher or preacher responsible to the obligations 
which he has assumed. If he reaches views essen- 
tially contrary to Presbyterian doctrine, he may have 
the largest liberty in declaring them when he is no 
longer under their commission and pay. A man of 
the common sense of honor, honesty, and fidelity 
could hardly propose for himself a different course. 
Agnostics may sneer at the application of this princi- 
ple as narrow, but would they commission and pay 
persons to preach Presbyterianism ? Can an officer 
commissioned in the service of his country fight un- 
der a hostile banner without committing treason ? 
Persons should not assume to be religious teachers 
who have no experience of religious faith. Too often 
Americans have been beguiled into error under Ger- 
man instruction, and on account of their opportuni- 
ties for intellectual culture have been accepted as 
worthy teachers in American institutions. It is due 
to those who give money for Presbyterian purposes 
and those who seek Presbyterian instruction that 
they should not be deceived. Sometimes there is a 
sentiment which would be satisfied with good charac- 
ter without intellectual attainments, with the goody- 
good as teacher or minister. In other cases, in this 
day of special care of methods and professional skill, 
the mistake is made of requiring no preparation in 
method. It may be well demanded that the religious 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 237 

teacher should excel not only in character and scholar- 
ship, but in mastery of methods. He has before him 
the example of the great teacher whose method was 
never equalled by Socrates or any other man. Pres- 
byterians may well be cautious how they treat the 
Bible in all their instruction; frivolous questions 
about it should be dismissed : neither should it be 
regarded with superstition. The superiority of its 
antiquity, piety, and moral sentiments may well be 
appreciated ; and, above all, it should be accepted as 
the Word of God, as the finality in teaching the 
nature of God and man and their relations. Studies 
about the Bible may be useful, but they should not 
take the place of the study of the Bible itself. It 
must be admitted there has been here and there a 
singular growth of indifference to Bible instruction 
in our higher institutions of learning. In the relig- 
ious college and academy it has been too often treated 
in a manner to deprive its study of all interest and 
enthusiasm. Indeed, the president of a college con- 
nected w T ith another religious body when asked if the 
Bible was used in his course, replied, " No," and that 
he hoped that it never would be. Time was when it 
was carefully studied in all higher institutions such 
as Harvard and Princeton. 

The Southern branch of our Church has excelled 
in its restoration to college use, and finds the Bible 
part of the course of greatest interest among students. 
The motives to excellence in our religious institutions 



238 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

are sometimes thrown out of balance by a system of 
merit, which recognizes only brightness in scholar- 
ship and leaves out all account of fidelity and charac- 
ter. Our theological seminaries, while giving special 
attention to the study of the Hebrew and Greek, have 
too much neglected the English Bible. In this form 
of the Word, the minister will be called upon speci- 
ally to wield the Sword of the Spirit. Too often the 
student coming through all the course of our religious 
training finds himself most imperfectly grounded in 
the relation of fundamental truths to the administra- 
tion of civil affairs or to the current practical ques- 
tions of the day. 

Historians have not ceased to describe the educat- 
ing power of Presbyterian doctrine and forms of 
worship in shaping the institutions of our country. 
For the American Presbyterian, education should be 
as universal as the responsibilities of citizenship. 
Therefore, having fixed the separation of Church and 
State, the universal and advanced education required 
to guarantee the intelligence necessary to a free State, 
both by religious and civil considerations, is intrusted 
to the State. Here, too, the Bible should be the test 
of any scheme of instruction. 

The formal action of the State in education in 
ancient history appears only here and there; and 
then in the main for special purposes or for limited 
classes, as is illustrated in the instruction of which 
we catch glimpses in Assyria and Egypt, Greece and 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 239 

Rome. Later this power and duty only dawned here 
and there upon a royal mind, as upon that of Alfred, 
or Charlemagne, or Frederick, who found he could 
make his people more powerful in array against his 
enemies by training officers, and caught the idea 
that by training teachers he could multiply the 
effectiveness of his citizens, and so established nor- 
mal schools. Luther declared that it was as much 
the duty of the magistrate to establish schools for the 
instruction of youth as to build bridges and make 
roads. The undertaking of these duties by the State 
justifies itself to reason, and more than any other 
cause has in recent time given great impulse to edu- 
cational progress. If the State for self-protection must 
levy taxes and exert its power to preserve order and 
punish murder, it can with equal right levy taxes 
and educate its people for the prevention of crime. 
There follows logically the duty of applying the best 
principles and methods, guarding the qualification 
of teachers, supplying equipments, and conducting 
supervision. Our public school system originated 
in Puritan New England, where school and church, 
and State and church were so long one. Before they 
were separated, schools were established by civil au- 
thority including every child, so that each one might 
be able to read so much of the statute as to be de- 
terred from its violation, and so much of the Scrip- 
ture as to be enabled to resist Satan. In different 
States, the system of public instruction has come to 



240 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

embrace all grades from the kindergarten to the 
university. The relation of Presbyterian Churches 
to education by the State is not formal, but like their 
relation to civil affairs in other respects, through their 
members sharing in its direction and paying taxes for 
its support, and through their youth who enjoy its 
privileges. To judge how much this may be, we 
may gain some idea by reflecting that if one child 
in a family is normal, he may have free all education 
to which he aspires, even to that in the university. 
Is another blind, or deaf, or feeble-minded, the State 
offers the needed instruction without cost. 

How many Presbyterian youth attend this element- 
ary or secondary public instruction it is impossible 
to estimate with accuracy. 

From a religious census of the State universities 
and of the Presbyterian colleges, edited by Francis 
W. Kelse}^, Esq., we have the significant statement 
that " in seventeen State universities there were en- 
rolled 2434 Presbyterian students, against 2388, the 
total attendance in the thirty-seven colleges under 
the auspices of our churches." He adds, " in view of 
present tendencies that are unmistakable, is it not 
likely that in twent} T -five years the majority of lay- 
men in the Presbyterian Church who have enjoyed 
the advantages of higher education, laymen who 
will be charged with the administration of its mater- 
ial interests and will be exerting an influence in 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 241 

shaping its policy, will be laymen who have never 
entered the door of a Presbyterian college ? " 

Here is a responsibility which Presbyterian Churches 
bear to education that must be met without delay. 
No one can object to their making their own institu- 
tions more effective, or to their carrying to success 
the movement already commenced of furnishing a 
Presbyterian house in connection with each State 
university, where Presbyterian students may enjoy 
Presbyterian association and worship, and instruction 
in Presbyterian doctrine and polity. But there re- 
mains still the adjustment of religious instruction 
to the entire public system of education. No edu- 
cational question of the day is more important. 
We are fully assured that the separation of 
Church and State is to the advantage of each and 
of the individual. Presbyterians have no question 
of their duty to each. They have only to be as- 
sured there is no antagonism and to think out 
clearly for themselves and others the line of harmon- 
ious action. There is a sentiment that would carry 
this separation to the extent that civil administration 
must be not only non-sectarian, but positively hostile 
to religion. This sentiment has apparently resulted 
in the declaration of a clergyman or a judge here 
and there, who has been ready to run before he is 
called, " that the reading of the Bible must be ex- 
cluded from public instruction." Is it clear that the 
best book is the first book to be excluded from public 

16 



242 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

schools? that the book most helpful to American 
youth is the one they are forbidden to use? the book 
out of whose influence have come our free institu- 
tions and their defense, the book whose presence or 
absence has marked the ebb and flow in education, 
the rise and fall of nations ? Xo Presbyterian will 
ask that his creed, as distinguished from others, 
shall be taught by the public instructor, but in com- 
mon with all evangelical believers he holds that the 
morals of the American State, upon which it depends 
for order and peace, are in substance the same as the 
morals of the Bible. On all hands it will be agreed 
that nothing is more essential in education than 
moral training. The body may be strengthened and 
the intellect sharpened only to make their possessor 
a deadly foe to himself and to his fellows. The 
power of moral direction — the right choice— is most 
important to be cultivated. Choices right in effect 
will be made by different persons from different 
motives. In man's intercourse with his fellow they 
may be determined by conditions under the control 
of the State, or they may be controlled by a desire to 
obey the divine command. Two persons drawing 
their motives from these two widely different consid- 
erations may act the same on all questions affecting 
each other's lives and property ; may live in har- 
mony and be good citizens ; the morals of each traced 
to their source will be found to come from the Bible ; 
now mav thev not both look at the Bible as thev look 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 243 

at life, and as the}' disagree as to the religion of life 
and agree as to the wisdom and necessity of its mor- 
als, may they not see with equal clearness that 
they can disagree as to the religion of the Bible 
and accept its morals, and for the purpose of its 
morals unite in its use as they unite in the uses 
of life? Much in this question depends upon the 
good temper of all concerned ; the qualification of 
the teacher is a most important factor. It is interest- 
ing to know that there has been made a book of 
selections from the Bible satisfactory to the committee, 
representing the Agnostic, the Jew, the Protestant, 
and the Catholic. 

The relation of these questions to provisions of the 
National Constitution is most intimate. The great 
sentiment of the country is in favor of the separation 
of ecclesiastical from civil affairs. But of this separa- 
tion there is no guarantee in the National Constitu- 
tion. Indeed, the only provision in that instrument 
in regard to religion is that Congress shall not enact 
any law establishing a religion or exclude a person 
from office on account of religious belief, and recog- 
nizing the Christian Sabbath, and the date of the 
year of our Lord, and the solemnity of oaths. All 
powers or rights not specifically granted to the nation 
are reserved to the people of the States. It is in the 
opinion of the people of each State, therefore, to pro- 
vide enactments of their own choice with regard to 
religion. So one State after another has been very 



244 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

exact in providing in its Constitution that its Legis- 
lature shall not appropriate money for the support 
of religion ; but there is nothing in the National Con- 
stitution to prevent any State from reversing its pres- 
ent decision, and the State of Utah might establish 
Mormonism as its religion and turn the entire ma- 
chinery of public instruction to the education of its 
youth in Mormon doctrines. 

What a rich legacy our fathers left us in that 
structure of our Government which assures liberty 
of conscience, and which permits the supremacy 
neither of the Church over the State nor the State 
over the Church. But with this great inheritance 
we have something to do. We must settle aright for 
ourselves and for our posterity the relation of the 
Bible to education under the direction of the State. 
One thing we can do without question from any 
quarter, and that is make Bible instruction in col- 
leges under religious control so superior in interest 
and results that all will want the Bible in their 
courses of study. 

Presbyterian Churches acknowledge other respon- 
sibilities to education beyond what may be accom- 
plished by their doctrines and their forms of worship 
within themselves. For the purpose of aiding feeble 
churches and carrying the Gospel to those not reached 
by it in our own and other lands, this our body, or 
division, has organized eight Boards, each educative 
or promotive of education in its special way. I wish 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 245 

we might focus their educative power and bring it to 
bear on our hearts. If it is true that only one-seventh 
of our churches contribute to the work of all the 
Boards, what a privilege, what a means of grace the 
other six-sevenths of our churches fail to improve ! 

Is a worshipper ever annoyed by his pastor's an- 
nouncing the day for receiving gifts to this or that 
Board of the Church, let him reflect that this is no 
begging, that this is an offer of an opportunity for 
using with greater effect his influence and means 
which he has consecrated to the Master. Neither one 
member nor one church can take into view all con- 
ditions or demands for Christian effort ; but by asso- 
ciation this may be accomplished. In the operations 
of these Boards, every church member may have a 
voice, as he has in his Session, Presbytery, Synod, 
and the Assembly ; they make present this oppor- 
tunity for the gifts, prayers, and personal influence 
of every worshipper. The men who administer these 
Boards are carefully selected for their ability, piety, 
trustworthiness and special fitness, and their opera- 
tions are brought before all Presbyteries and Synods 
and carefully revised annually by the General As- 
sembly. In connection with these Boards, woman 
finds her appropriate sphere and fills it with an effici- 
ency sealed with divine approval and has added 
mightily to the educative work of the churches. 
Each Board will appear before Assembly with its 
own full report ; but we cannot appreciate the pres- 



246 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

ent relation of this, our body, of Presbyterian Churches 
to education and leave out all allusion to them here. 
Once Presbyterians may have suffered like other de- 
nominations from the theory that missions only re- 
quired preaching — the mistaken theory under which 
a great missionary secretary closed so many mission 
schools ; but that day, thank God, has passed. It is 
not now doubted that teaching and training in the 
life of Christ is an essential part of the preaching of 
the Gospel. Our two great organizations, the Home 
and the Foreign Boards, divide the world between 
them. As the Home Board adds churches to its 
forces, each should become a systematic contributor 
to all the Boards, and as the Home Board lifts up the 
cry, " Our country for Christ," the Foreign Board 
takes up the refrain, "Christ for the world." 

If American liberties are to be destroyed or Amer- 
ican Presbyterianism corrupted, it is to be done 
through the education of the young. In the future, 
as in the past, destruction may come by man's as- 
suming some unwarranted power over his fellow as 
a divine right ; it may be the divine right of wealth, 
or station, or labor, or some power devised for man's 
gratification. In the absence of the law, God's chosen 
people came nearest to destruction. Every nation 
has found its greatest peril in the greatest absence of 
the Divine Word. Our safety is the presence of its 
truths wrought by education into the hearts and 
illustrated in the lives of the American people. The 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 247 

Bible is the only safe guide for training in the right- 
eousness which exalteth a nation. What more sig- 
nificant sign of our peril and of the need of the Bible 
to enlighten the individual understanding than the 
declaration of a man dignified by a seat in the United 
States Senate to the effect that the Ten Command- 
ments have no place in American politics? 

As a nation we are especially charged with the 
responsibility of elevating degraded races, the African 
and the aborigine, and of receiving to our great 
privileges those not so highly favored. 

Is Hawaii, after being brought up from the degra- 
dation of paganism to the position of Christian civili- 
zation by the labors and sacrifices of American mis- 
sionaries, now to become a part of our domain — are 
the prophecies of this critical year to bring to us civil 
responsibilities for other people ? Let us remember 
we can have no assurance that we shall discharge 
them with success if the Bible is left out of our edu- 
cation. 

Nor are Presbyterian Churches unmindful of the 
influence in favor of education exerted by authors, 
teachers, agencies, institutions, or journals not form- 
ally under their control but devoted to instruction 
in their doctrine. Even a catalogue of these agencies 
cannot be attempted. As we canvass this array of 
the educational forces of Presbyterian Churches, we 
exclaim, how fit, how well adapted to enlighten man- 
kind and to advance the Kingdom of Light and 



248 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 

bring men to a knowledge of the Gospel, to save souls 
and to maintain a free Church in a free State ! No- 
where is there a lack of opportunity, or men, or meas- 
ures, the only deficiency — the only lack — is the sup- 
ply of means with which its membership has been 
so largely blessed. Did not their consecration in- 
clude their wealth as well as themselves? Do they 
so cherish their gold and silver that they are unwill- 
ing to give of their superabundance to preserve the 
faith which their fathers died to maintain — the faith 
upon which depends their hope of immortality? 
Shall we surrender our birthright for a mess of pot- 
tage? Shall we hold the things of this world so 
tightly in our grasp that they can be bestowed for 
the benefit of others only when our hand is cold in 
death ! Shall not Presbyterian Churches rouse them- 
selves to this full responsibility for the education of 
the youth of to-day that they may go forth with a 
consecration never before witnessed, and thus use 
their inheritance of privilege and means to prepare 
better and greater things for the magnificent century 
about to begin ? 



PRESBYTERIANISM AND ITS INFLU- 
ENCE UPON SOCIETY THROUGH 
ITS EMPHASIS UPON CHILD- 
HOOD AND YOUTH. 

BY THE 

Key. NEWELL D WIGHT HILLIS, D. D. 



PRESBYTERIANISM AND ITS INFLUENCE 
UPON SOCIETY THROUGH ITS EMPHASIS 
UPON CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 

BY THE 

Key. NEWELL D WIGHT HILLIS, D.D. 



In the highest sense Jesus Christ may be called 
the discoverer of childhood. In an age when king- 
doms were founded upon thrones and armies he an- 
nounced the monarchy of cradles. Surrounded by 
jurists and scholars, he placed a child in their midst, 
and crowned its dispositional qualities as the highest 
types of the heavenly kingdom. Nature can change 
a small seed into a golden sheaf, an acorn into an 
acre-covering oak ; and Christ announced a power for 
transforming a babe into a sage, a hero, a statesman, 
a seer. For teachers and parents he exhibited the 
child as a handful of germs and roots to be grown as 
a bough of unblossomed buds. If Socrates sneered at 
the grief of a mother weeping for her babe ; if Plato 
suggested that every town or city should select some 
distant hill-top and there build a pen for the expo- 
sure of unwelcome children ; if Aristotle urged laws 
making the drowning of weak babes compulsory 
upon parents ; if Seneca said " we slay the worn out 

251 



252 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

ox and horse and it is not wrath but reason that 
separates weak children from strong " ; in striking 
contrast therewith Jesus Christ took a child in his 
arms, and in its trust, teachableness, and purity dis- 
covered forces that threatened thrones and made the 
might of kings ridiculous. For him, the grave itself 
was not so overarched by awe and mystery as was 
the cradle, and his love brooded over the child in his 
arms as the star stood over the divine child in the 
manger. Down through the ages unto distant gener- 
ations he sent forth this word, " Suffer little children 
to come unto me." 

From that hour his disciples began to make at- 
tractive for all young feet those paths that lead to 
the temple of knowledge and beauty. Because Christ 
made childhood sacred, Christian parents and teach- 
ers began to make all forces and institutions to exist 
for the enrichment of youth. For children laws be- 
came just and gentle. For children the wheels of 
industry turned round. For children the walls and 
shelves became beautiful. For children schools were 
founded, colleges strengthened, printing presses ran 
day and night. For youth homes became happy, music 
became sweet and high, the gallery and library took 
on a lustrous grace. Indeed, a new epoch dawned 
for society. Thenceforth all institutions began to imi- 
tate the wise men from the east, who brought to the 
divine child their rich gold and aromatic spices, their 
frankincense and treasure. To-day Christ's estimate 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 253 

of childhood is the very heart and genius of Christian 
civilization. 

But when we have affirmed that for all churches, 
Lutheran, Anglican, and Reformed alike, the found- 
ing of schools and colleges has been the immediate 
and powerful result of the acceptance of Christ's esti- 
mate of childhood, we may also affirm that the genius, 
principles, and methods of the Presbyterian Church 
have been such as to strengthen in a way altogether 
unique, those instruments that make for the happi- 
ness and culture of youth. History tells us that in 
Geneva the colleges sprang up under the very eaves 
of the church in which Calvin preached. In Hol- 
land, when " William the Silent" became a Calvinist, 
he directed that the teachers for adults on the Sab- 
bath should become teachers of children on week 
days. In Scotland, when our fathers had finished 
the Solemn League and Covenant, they went on to 
found their public schools, their great universities. 
In our own land also it must be a matter of pride 
with us and our children that the founders of Har- 
vard, Yale, and Princeton all held to the Reformed 
faith. In that Grecian scene, when the little child, 
ignorant of its danger, loitered on the way to the 
temple, an unseen friend drew near, and rolling 
golden apples along the path, caused the child to run 
gleefully towards the portals of safety. And for two 
centuries Presbyterian teachers and parents have 
sought to lend allurement and beauty to those paths 



254 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

that lead toward that temple where wisdom hath her 
dwelling place. Standing in the pulpit or forum, in 
library or legislative hall, our Presbyterian fathers 
have insisted that the State that throws a wall of pro- 
tection around its iron-furnaces and cotton-factories, 
should also throw shields of learning and morals 
around young feet, and for young hearts make possi- 
ble a fair start in that dangerous thing called life. 
Already we have traced the influence of Presbyterian- 
ism upon our law and literature, our art and morals, 
our science and government, our social and civic 
institutions. But, if in calling the roll of the great 
men of this nation, the number of Presbyterian presi- 
dents, of legislators and jurists, of authors and editors, 
teachers and merchants has been vastly dispropor- 
tionate to the membership of our church, we shall 
find the explanation of this unique pre-eminency in 
the simple fact that our Church has stood for the 
family and the children in it, emphasizing the 
mother's heart as the true university, emphasizing 
the father as teacher and priest, insisting upon the 
higher education for its daughters, founding colleges 
and universities for the culture of its sons. For let 
us confess that whatever is unique in the manhood 
of the hero, inventor, or statesman was first of all 
unique in his childhood. 

The emphasis that the Presbyterian Church has 
placed upon God's covenant with parents for their 
children, has exerted an immeasurable influence upon 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 255 

the nation's thought and life. If the English and 
American Baptist Churches, though Calvinistic in 
creed, have minimized the Abrahamic covenant, that 
covenant has been magnified by the Presbyterians. 
In a world where the home is safer for an outer 
covenant called the marriage ceremony ; where justice 
in our courts is the surer for the covenant, pledging 
a man to speak the truth ; where governments are 
more firmly founded, because presidents take the 
solemn oath to fulfil the laws; the Church has urged 
parents through a public and solemn ceremony to 
accept Abraham's covenant as unto us and our chil- 
dren after us. One of the results has been that 
greater sanctity could not have attached to the child 
in the cradle, had God taken the babe in his arms, 
consecrated it with some sacred farewell, given it over 
to a celestial messenger, and sent it forth bearing a 
scroll of heavenly writ on which was written, " This 
babe is my well-beloved one ; take it, teach it ; when 
you have stored it with treasures of mind and heart, 
bring it again to me." It is a truism that every 
child has a right to a good first birth ; and it may 
be doubted whether any children in the community 
are better born, cared for, or trained than those reared 
in the homes of the Reformed faith. And under the 
laws of nature a certain result of home care and 
culture is, that all that is best in the parent's mind 
and heart is handed- forward to the children and to 
the children's children, so making each new genera- 



256 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

tion healthier, happier, handsomer, wiser, and better 
than its predecessor, giving us good hope of an era 
when a redeemed society shall dwell upon the earth. 
Science affirms that heredity is to usher in an era of 
universal happiness and peace. But this law that 
science has only recently emphasized was fully stated 
by Moses more than three thousand years ago, when 
he tells us that the vices and sins of the fathers are 
not permitted to go beyond the third and fourth gen- 
eration, while the knowledge and virtues of the 
righteous are put out at compound interest for " thou- 
sands of generations of them that love me and keep my 
commandments." And our church's emphasis of God's 
covenant with parents seems fully justified by the 
career of the great and small men of history. A 
noble Hebrew mother braves Pharaoh's wrath, and 
her moral courage appears in the leadership of her 
son Moses. Avaricious Jacob covets Esau's wealth 
and deceives his father. Then Jacob's avarice reap- 
pears in his sons, and, exchanging Joseph for the gold 
of the slave-dealers, they in turn deceive Jacob. 
Trust in God is a striking quality in Hannah, and 
that beautiful trust is more striking in her son 
Samuel. John is the forerunner of Jesus, but Zacha- 
rias is the forerunner of John. Sitting at twilight 
in her open window in Hippo, Monica, like Stephen, 
sees the heavens open and the angels of God descend- 
ing, and then the mother's vision power reappears 
in her great son Augustine, who saw the City of 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 257 

God as an Ideal Commonwealth coming down out of 
heaven. We say Paganini is the first of violinists, 
but Paganini was born with muscles in his wrists 
that stood out like whip-cords. We say Sebastian 
Bach is a great musician ; but triere were one hundred 
and twenty-six people of the name of Bach living in 
France and Germany during a single century, for 
music is hereditary in this great family. Catharine 
de Medici is cruel and ferocious, and her ferocity 
reappears in Charles IX. ordering the massacre of St. 
Bartholomew ; for if the mother was a hawk, pounc- 
ing down upon young doves, the son was a wolf 
slaying for mere love of blood. English critics rank 
Emerson as the first essayist of the century, but 
Emerson represents seven generations of clergymen 
who were essayists and scholars. Abraham Lincoln 
was distinguished for stature, lucid statement, and wit 
and humor, but his mother, Nancy Hanks, was the 
daughter of one of the handsomest, most talented, 
and influential of all the Virginia planters. Thinking 
of heredity, we liken the child unto a cask whose 
staves represent trees growing on distant and widely 
separated hills ; some staves are worm-eaten, standing 
for the errors of sinful ancestors ; some staves are 
sound, standing for God-fearing forefathers; and 
all the staves are brought together at the child's birth 
to be filled by parents and friends. On Easter day in 
St. Peter's a golden urn is placed before the altar, 
and the multitudes passing by, drop in, some their 

17 



258 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

gold, some their pearls and diamonds, some their 
silks and costly stuffs. But if the Presbyterian 
Church asks each parent to cause the child's mind, 
as a vase to be stored with gold from the best books, 
with beauty from the best pictures and landscapes, 
and truth from the divinest religion ; on the other 
hand, atheistic nations, through their neglect, make 
their children to seem like unto those vessels of dis- 
honor that stand in the alleys, to receive the refuse 
represented by the vices and immoralities of our ten- 
ement districts. 

The emphasis that Presbyterianism has placed 
upon the child's predisposition to selfishness and sin, 
and the consequent necessity of the systematic 
culture of the higher spiritual faculties, has had the 
inevitable result of the emphasis of habit and 
method as the very basis of character. Speaking in 
Washington, a distinguished bishop of the Method- 
ist Church explained the wealth, influence, and pre- 
cedence of Presbyterian families by our catechisms 
for children and youth, and our systematic drill in 
Scriptures. A century ago an English deist calling 
upon Coleridge inveighed bitterly against the rigidity 
of instruction in the Christian home. " Consider," 
said he, " the helplessness of a pastor's child. How 
selfish is the parent who ruthlessly stamps his ideas 
and religious prejudices, into the receptive nature as 
a moulder stamps the hot iron with his image. I 
shall prejudice my children neither for Christianity 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 259 

nor for Buddhism, but allow them to wait for their 
mature years and then choose for themselves." A 
little later Coleridge led his atheistic friend into the 
garden. Suddenly he exclaimed, "The time was 
when in April I killed the young weeds and put my 
beds out to vegetables, flowers, and fruits. But I have 
now decided to permit the garden to go on until Aug- 
ust or September, and then allow the beds to choose for 
themselves between weeds and fruit. I am unwilling 
to prejudice the soil either toward thistles and cockle- 
burs or roses and violets." In that hour Coleridge 
unconsciously stated the genius of Presbyterianism 
in its relation to childhood and youth, seeking through 
systematic drill to develop spiritual aptitudes and 
habits. 

Often those who disbelieve in the Presbyterian 
emphasis on family worship and regular Bible in- 
struction, urge that our systematic drill in religion 
destroys spontaneity, that habit and rule do away 
with freshness of feeling. Nevertheless, the method 
of the Church is the method of nature. Working to 
a rule nature lays the warm tints into the rose and 
paints the apple-blossom. By rule nature mixes the 
tints of the strawberry. By rule nature works coal- 
dust into diamonds and clay into sapphire. By rule 
nature covers the hills with the rich glow of cluster- 
ing food, and lends a spice and tang to peach and 
pear. In the creative realm also, just in proportion 
as men have gone toward habit and method in the 



260 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

intellectual life, have they gone toward spontaneity 
of genius. The poet David is by pre-eminence the 
child of creative inspiration. But David says, 
" morning and noon and night do I pray." For it is 
system that feeds in him the springs of inspiration. 
Those orators, too, who have been most famous for 
spontaneous eloquence, Webster, Phillips, Beecher, 
Gladstone, have given whole years to drilling them- 
selves in voice, posture, gesture and expression. Obey- 
ing the laws of language, the essayists have their elo- 
quence. Obeying the laws of color, the artists have 
their beauty. Obeying the laws of melody, the song 
has its sweetness. Nor does history show one 
great architect, sculptor, or lecturer who has at- 
tained excellence in any department of life, who has 
not had his pre-eminence through his emphasis of 
habit and rule. For nature and experience alike 
stand back of our Church in its estimate of the 
importance of drill and training in the Christian 
life. 

The estimate that Presbyterianism has placed upon 
the critical hours of youth has led it to emphasize the 
intellectual instruments that make rbr higher educa- 
tion, and hence it has naturally a close affiliation 
with the arts, sciences, and literature. Believing 
that wisdom is better than rubies, and knowledge 
than fine gold, from the beginning our fathers de- 
fined ignorance as failure, and success as knowing 
how. They held that the doing that makes com- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 261 

merce is born of the thinking that makes scholars. 
They taught their children that the scholar is the 
favorite child of heaven and earth, that elect one 
upon whom the good God pours forth all his most 
precious gifts. Other systems of philosophy and re- 
ligion have emphasized the land, sea, and sky, but 
the Presbyterian system has emphasized God, his 
divine government, his all-loving providence. It 
taught the young to ponder on those high questions : 
What is conscience ? Is duty or pleasure the basis 
of right ? Is man free ? Is law invariable ? What 
is right? Pleasure? Self-sacrifice? Is man im- 
mortal ? And these great thoughts made young men 
to be great thinkers. For eloquent orators do not 
discuss petty themes. Great philosophical systems 
cannot be built upon the spawn of frogs or the ooze 
of sloughs. The woes of India lent eloquence to 
Burke. The Madonna lent loveliness to Raphael. 
Paradise lent beauty to Dante and strength to Milton. 
And the divine truths that our fathers emphasized 
have been among the most powerful stimulants ever 
known to the mind and heart. In the profoundest sense 
the Church that most closely allies itself to the teach- 
ing of Christ becomes the greatest force in society. For 
in itself Christianity is a beautiful civilization. Once 
men actually began to understand Christ's revelation 
of God, the architects began to tax themselves to build 
cathedrals worthy of the worship of him whom the 
heaven of heavens could not contain. Artists vied 



262 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

with one another to create angels beautiful enough 
for the walls of Christ's temples. Sculptors went 
everywhither searching out marble white enough for 
Christ's forehead. Handel taxed his genius for songs 
sweet enough for Christ's praise. And in the found- 
ing of schools and colleges for all young feet, where 
men should discourse upon the home, the State, the 
marriage tie, the children about the hearth, upon art 
and beauty, our Church came to affiliate itself with 
the institutions of higher education. Its intellectual 
associations have been many and honorable. Having 
brought wisdom and happiness to the children about 
the hearth, it has indirectly brought progress to the 
State, thus exercising influence immeasurable upon 
all civilization. 

Having insisted upon the schools of higher educa- 
tion for our sons and daughters, it became necessary 
for the Church to insist upon the higher education 
for the ministry under whom these children were to 
sit. When parents have been trained to rise up early 
and sit up late to rehearse the truth of God to their 
children, the next step was the higher education of 
that group of sons destined to enter its ministry. If 
certain sister churches known as Arminian, and cer- 
tain Calvinistic churches known as Baptist, continued 
for generations to minimize education for the min- 
istry, for two hundred and fifty years the Presby- 
terian Church has insisted upon the higher training 
of those who were to teach our youth the oracles of 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 263 

God. And to this single fact we may attribute the 
unprecedented influence upon civilization of Scotland 
and England and America. If the time was when 
historians mentioned warriors, kings, and generals, 
the time has now come when historians have to 
recognize the influence of moral teachers in the rise 
and progress of the people. Webster through stately 
orations, Choate through impassioned addresses, and 
Froude through polished essays, have all affirmed 
that our town meeting and representative govern- 
ment go back to Calvin's pulpit in Geneva. In the 
realm of literature also, Macaulay and Morley de- 
clare that Shakespeare, Milton, and Tennyson re- 
ceived their literary inspiration as a free gift from 
those religious teachers named Cadman and Bede, 
and those pastors who gave us our King James ver- 
sion of the Bible. Standing before the cathedral of 
Wittenberg, Jean Paul uncovered his head and said, 
" The story of the German language and literature 
is the story of Martin Luther's pulpit." Speaking of 
the pleas for patriotism and liberty that led up to the 
revolution, Emerson said the Puritan pulpits were 
the springs of American liberty. In his celebrated 
argument in the Girard College case, when Daniel 
Webster was discussing the ministry in its relation to 
children and youth, the great jurist asked this ques- 
tion, " Where have the life-giving elements of civili- 
zation ever sprung up, save in the track of the Chris- 
tian ministry." Having expressed the hope that 



264 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

American scholars had done something for the honor 
of literature abroad, that our courts of justice had to 
some degree exalted the law, that orations in Congress 
had tended to secure the charter of human rights, 
Daniel Webster added these words, " But I contend 
that no literary effort, no adjudications, no constitu- 
tional discussion, nothing that has ever been done or 
said in favor of the great interests, of the universal in- 
terests of man, has done this country more credit at 
home and abroad than our body of clergymen." In 
commerce, writing for a prominent journal, a manu- 
facturer has just said that he has learned to fear the 
competition of the sons of ministers, because they 
have good habits, are educated, know the value of 
money, and can handle men. In politics, reviewing 
the last campaign and the candidates of the various 
parties for the presidency, an editor said political 
parties must reckon with colleges and the sons or 
grandsons of clergymen. Those volumes called the 
Dictionary of Science disclose the men that the clergy 
have furnished, the large proportion, ten to one, of 
the great scientists of our era. 

Be the reasons what they may, when we have 
emphasized the influence of war, politics, commerce, 
law, science, government, we must also confess that 
the pulpit has been one of the greatest forces in 
social progress. For the prophets of yesterday are 
the social leaders of to-morrow. To-morrow Moses 
will enter his pulpit and control the verdict in every 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 265 

court in our cities. To-morrow as Germans we will ut- 
ter the speech that Luther fashioned for us, or as Sax- 
ons use idioms that Wycliffe and Bunyan taught our 
fathers. To-morrow the citizen will exercise his 
privilege of freedom of thought and speech and 
recall Guizot's words, " Democracy crossed over into 
Europe in the little boat that brought Paul." To- 
morrow the groom and bride will set up their altar, 
and kindling the sacred fires of affection, will found 
their home upon Paul's principle, " The greatest of 
these is love." To-morrow educators, authors, and 
jurists will re-read the Sermon on the Mount, and 
influenced by this sermon, society will seek to put 
justice into law, ethics into politics, goodwill into 
commerce, and righteousness into all social life. Tt 
is said that many young men are being allured into 
the paths of commerce through the enormous wealth 
that trade offers. But if the Presbyterian minister 
averages six hundred dollars a year, and our mer- 
chants have their millions, these merchants need their 
millions to compensate for the fact that they are not 
clergymen founding a college for ignorance, a hospi- 
tal for hurt hearts, an armory from which men may 
receive weapons for life's battle, opening up springs 
in life's desert, and planting palms in life's burning 
sands. For the ministry puts its stamp not into 
wood that will rot, not into iron that will rust, not 
into colors that will fade, but into minds and hearts 
that are immortal. It deals largely with the forma- 



266 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

tion, instruction, and culture of childhood and youth, 
and with the establishment of youth in vital habits, 
hopes, and faiths. The historian tells us that when 
an Italian princess was defeated in battle the victor 
claimed her child as a trophy of war. In the hour 
when the soldiers came to take away the child, 
the mother rushed from the house, tore her jewels 
from her, and emptied all her gold and treasure at 
the child's feet. In the same hour that the brutal 
general would fain have slain the little one that 
threatened his succession, the mother caused her 
palace to empty all its treasures about this little one, 
whom she loved more than her life. It is not given 
us through voice or hand to reach forward and touch 
future generations. But futurity is vulnerable at 
that point named childhood. Happy our Church 
that has made the family to be the spring of prog- 
ress ; that makes the heart beautiful for the children ; 
that has made the school rich for the mind, the 
gallery beautiful for imagination, the marriage altar 
sacred for the eager heart ; that has plied its sons 
and daughters with influences that make for mis- 
sions; that has founded bands of hope, endeavor 
societies, and fed all the forces that ally young hearts 
with the Christian Church. 

Grateful for what our fathers have lent us of law, 
or learning, or liberty, our chief debt is for what they 
have done for us through the enrichment of child- 
hood. And should an age ever come when we 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 267 

neglect the training of our little ones, cease to ply 
them with the great truths of God and Christ, of 
sin and redemption, and conscience and immortality, 
an immense loss would befall our Church and our 
nation. Eloquence will depart from our forum, the 
glory will fade from library and chapel, all lustre 
will leave our learning and our laws. We can re- 
cord no higher prayer than that the spirit of our 
fathers, which led them to rise up early and sit up 
late, for the rehearsing of the truth of God, may be 
our heritage and spirit also. May goodness like 
theirs glorify our churches. May heaven drop its 
charmed gifts upon our children and our children's 
children, until all are Christians and patriots and 
sons of God. 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES 
AND HOME MISSIONS. 

BY THE 

Eev. GEO. L. SPINING, D. D. 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES AND 
HOME MISSIONS. 



The spirit of a mighty past has come upon us this 
day; the curtain of history has been uplifted; the 
fathers of Presbyterianism have reappeared upon the 
stage; their heroic deeds have stirred our souls as 
with the sound of a trumpet; battle hymns of the 
16th century have been caught up loyally and an- 
swered back in a thundering chorus from the head 
of the column in the 19th century ; oratory aglow 
with inspiration has thrilled us with the electricity 
of kinship which unites the great million-hearted 
Presbyterian Church of to-day with the heroes of the 
Reformation, with martyrs of whom the world was 
not worthy, with Scots who gave to the old Grayfriars' 
Churchyard everlasting renown, with divines who 
gave to Westminster Abbey its greatest monumental 
significance, and with the Puritan, the Huguenot, 
and the Covenanter who brought Presbyterianism 
and Republicanism— mother and child — from the 

271 



272 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

Old World to the New : who framed the Constitution 
of the State upon the polity of the Church ; and who 
under God made America — grand imperial America 
— what it is to-day, humanity's most powerful advo- 
cate and the world's best exponent of civil and religi- 
ous liberty ! 

Oh thou religious mother of heroes, reformers, and 
martyr-confessors ! thou patriot mother of sons whose 
names illumine our Declaration of Independence! thou 
mother of children whose blood cemented our politi- 
cal fabric, and whose lives have passed into all the 
noble institutions which constitute the strength and 
glory of our Republic, we salute thee to-night ! 

Thy history is the rich heritage of thy sons and 
daughters, and woe is unto us if we allow it to perish 
from the earth, for within it lies the heroism of faith, 
the stimulus of example, the wisdom of experience, 
the teachings of Providence, and the prophecy of the 
future. 

To remember thee is to be ourselves remembered ; 
to forget thee is to be ourselves forgotten ! 

Whence cometh the old Norse legend that the 
spirits of patriot martyrs are permitted to return and 
hover over their descendants on anniversary and 
memorial days? What meaneth the "great cloud of 
witnesses " in Holy Writ ? What is the significance 
of that vast star-reaching amphitheater of shining 
immortals ever looking down upon the church ? Ah, 
it means that 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 273 

" We are not divided, 
All one body we, 
One in hope and doctrine, 
One in charity." 

— that the Church in heaven and earth is one ; that 
the church militant needs the flashing inspiration of 
the church triumphant; that the shadow of a 
vaster presence — a more imposing assemblage than 
mortal eyes have ever seen is over us; and that 
God would utilize the heroism of illustrious ex- 
amples, the achievements of conquering faith, and 
the ravishing glory of the victor-crowned host to 
animate and quicken the sacramental host on earth 
until the end of time. 

We speak of the " dead past," but the past is never 
dead. Who are the leaders of the Church to-day, 
Canon Farrar, or Paul the tentmaker ? Leo XIII. or 
Peter the fisherman ? 

Are Washington and Lincoln dead, and do not 
their names contain a magic power to waken mil- 
lions to noble endeavor? 

Ah, the past is never dead ! All history is God's 
mighty electric battery charged to the full with 
slumbering forces which have subdued kingdoms, 
overturned thrones, and shaken the world to its 
center. 

To-day we have but touched a pole connecting us 
with the stirring scenes of the great Reformation, 
and although three centuries have passed since those 

18 



274 WESTMIXSTER ASSEMBLY 

scenes were enacted, that touch has sent such a thrill 
through this body as to 

"Stir a fever in the blood of age, 
And make the infant's sinews strong as steel.'' 

The end of this anniversary is not self-glorification 
and an ostentatious parade of denominationalism. 
Nay, God's hand is in it, and it means remembrance, 
stimulus, inspiration, life from the dead, and a 
glorious flood of light on some of the dark pro- 
blems of history. 

We see clearly now why America was not given to 
Spain in 1492, and why the massive doors of our 
vast domain were locked and bolted for a century 
thereafter. 

It was because the master builders of the future 
kingdom of God in the New World were still in their 
apprenticeship : Luther. Calvin, and Knox had their 
work to do ; the new Israel was still toiling in the 
brickyards of Egypt and not ready for its exodus ; 
the Spanish inquisition had its grip of steel on con- 
science and intellect, and an unchained Bible and 
the printing-press had not yet effected their emanci- 
pation ; the money-changers held the temple of 
Christianity and their god Mammon was therein en- 
throned, while the Master " kept tryst with his saints 
in the mountains — his locks wet with the dews of the 
morning " ; a holy war for civil and religious liberty 
was raging; shining saints were to be born of fire, 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 275 

and tempest, and sword ; and men of clean heart, 
clear brain, enlightened conscience, and nerve were 
needed as standard-bearers of emancipated Truth — 
around whom the elect from many nations should 
gather, and by whom they should be led from the 
Old World to the New. For such reasons, if we in- 
terpret history aright, did the Angel of Providence 
stand with mailed hand and drawn sword at the 
eastern gates of this fair continent ; and when with 
far-discerning eye he saw the banner of Protestant 
Christendom emerging like a flame of glory from 
the dark battle-clouds of the Reformation — borne 
aloft by the scarred Huguenots of France, the heroic 
exiles of Holland, the grim psalm-singing Puritans 
of England, and the firm, unfaltering Covenanters 
of Scotland, he sheathed his sword, his mission was 
ended, the ponderous gates swung open wide, the 
winds of God were loosed, and over a stormy sea the 
nucleus of a new-born world was wafted to its wilder- 
ness home, its field of continental conquest, and its 
magnificent destiny. 

Oh, America, America ! thou latter-day Canaan of 
humanity, child of the Reformation, mighty enlight- 
ened free Republic, crowned with liberty, sceptred 
with might and dominion, enthroned between two 
great oceans, buttressed by religion, morality, law, 
education, and freedom, regal art thou, in thy shining 
garments of blue and gold and green wrought with 
threads of silver ; in thy millions of happy homes em- 



276 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

bowered with flowers ; and with thy tiara of a thousand 
cities flashing back the splendors of the Sun of Free- 
dom as it rises to noontide glory ! God of our fathers, 
preserve us, "lest we forget, lest we forget" thy 
hand in our deliverance, thy mighty hand in our 
prosperity ! 

Oh, America, favored above all lands, no child of 
infidelity art thou. Forget not that the Puritan, the 
Huguenot, and the Covenanter were thy master 
builders, that their principles and religious faith 
were inwrought in thy structure, and that their 
sacred dust has consecrated thy soil to civil and 
religious liberty for ever! 

Forget not the men who built thy first family 
altars, hallowed them with prayer, cemented them 
with virtue, baptized them with blood, and laid them 
so deeply in the Rock of Ages that they have with- 
stood the storms of centuries, and constitute thy chief 
strength and thy greatest security to-day. 

Forget not the type of religion which dominated 
these men ; because nations are the product of relig- 
ious faith ; religion shapes and moulds their political 
character and destiny. 

Where is the wickedest spot on the map of the 
globe? Is it in Africa, in Asia, in the South Sea 
Islands ? No, it is in the heart of nominally Chris- 
tian Europe: Turkey, bloated with sensuality, 
drunken with the blood of innocence, the double- 
dyed murderer of mankind. The sensual religion 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 277 

of Mahomet has determined her national character 
— a character " as far below that of her neighbors — 
degraded as some of them may be — as the Dead Sea 
is below the level of the Holy Land." In just so far 
as religious faith may be accountable as a factor en- 
tering into the formation of character, the Turk is 
the product of the Koran. 

Nor is the religion that dominates the Latin races 
the religion that America needs ; it will not produce 
the type of character we want. The Church which 
proclaims that " ignorance is the mother of devotion," 
has never emancipated or uplifted a nation, and it 
never will. We need the religion of the Puritan, 
the religion which strikes the shackles from body, 
mind, and soul ; the religion which dominates the 
Anglo-Saxon race and has made it what it is, the 
strongest race of the world, in virility, in intellect, in 
moral force, and in social and political progress. 

" By their fruits ye shall know them." Compare 
nations and races as they exist to-day and note the 
difference. 

There is a certain island — a mere dot in the ocean 
— which is the governing center of one-fourth of the 
world's population; the manufacturing center of 
civilization ; the naval center of fleets on every sea ; 
the intellectual center of the present age ; the relig- 
ious center of Christendom, the land of Victoria, the 
peerless Protestant Queen ; the land of Christian 
churches, schools, scholars, and statesmen ; the land 



278 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

of Shaftesbury, Bright, and Spurgeon ; the land . of 
Gladstone, the great commoner, who towered above 
men as a giant sequoia above trees — and the crash of 
whose mighty fall is still reverberating throughout 
the hushed forests of the world. 

I refer to England, little England, Protestant Eng- 
land, mighty England ! 

What is the secret of her national integrity, her 
commanding influence, and her dominant power 
among the nations of Europe? When a heathen 
prince put this question to Victoria, she answered, 
" the Bible," and gave him a King James version of 
the Word of God. 

If we would have America a grander England, we 
will make it our patriotic as well as our religious 
duty to give this same Bible to every foreigner 
coming to our shores, and to every man, woman, 
and child in the land. 

We will evangelize and keep on evangelizing. We 
will send thousands of missionaries into the field, 
gather thousands of congregations, gather millions 
of children into our Sunday-schools. The Bible and 
the Bible alone is our strength and our salvation as 
individuals and as a nation. 

The patriotism of the Presbyterians of America 
has always been characterized by deep religious feel- 
ing, and they have found it almost impossible to 
secularize it. The sacred cause to which their pious 
ancestors dedicated this country pervades their politi- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 279 

cal and religious thinking. They think of America 
as belonging to Christ, and of their national flag 
wherein it represents Christian principles and 
Christian institutions as being Christ's flag. They 
cannot secularize it entirely, for its folds have 
been reddened by the best blood of Christian 
heroes, shed in the holy cause of civil and religious 
liberty. 

To-day it is tipped with a divine flame of glory as 
it represents the humane spirit of the Gospel, and 
goes forth on the mission of the good Samaritan. If 
ever the Almighty made a national flag the symbol 
of a holy cause, he is doing it now. May it never 
retreat from this high moral plane, and may the 
manifold evils which now find shelter under its 
shadow be speedily vanquished by the moral and 
spiritual power emanating from an open Bible, a 
free Gospel, and a consecrated, evangelizing Christ- 
witnessing Church. 

The Presbyterian Church in America has always 
been an evangelizing church. Its earliest ministers 
were missionaries, and its first churches were many 
of them aided by stronger churches across the sea. 
Our system of home missions is built up on the prin- 
ciple that the strong should held the weak. The 
First Presbyterian church in New York City was 
nurtured from Scotland one hundred and eighty 
years ago. 

There are some exceptions, but generally, our first 



280 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

churches in every American city have been aided by 
our Board of Home Missions. All our churches 
west of the Mississippi except two have received such 
aid. Every church of the one hundred and seven- 
teen in the State of Washington is a child of the 
Home Board. 

We find the same home missionary spirit in the 
earliest minutes of the General Assembly that we 
find in the minutes- of to-day. 

The first Assembly (1789) appointed a committee 
on " Missionaries to be sent to the Frontier." In 1798, 
just one hundred years ago, the Assembly commis- 
sioned five men to go to the far west in the States of 
New York and Pennsylvania, and found churches in 
the frontier settlements adjacent to lake Erie. Three 
of this number, John Close, Asa Hillyer, and Asa 
Dunham, were ordained ministers, and two, John 
Slemmons and John B. Patterson, were licentiates of 
New Castle Presbytery. They traveled on foot and 
on horseback ; their stipend was forty dollars per 
month, and it was raised by annual contributions 
from the churches. Their mission was not only to 
preach to the whites, but to instruct negroes wherever 
found, and to " gospelize " the Indians. 

Ninety years ago our church numbered 354 
ministers and licentiates, 576 churches, 21,270 
communicants, and contributed $4618 for benevo- 
lent purposes. It also employed seventeen mission- 
aries. 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 281 

Every year since we have increased the number, 
and to-day we have about 1800 preaching and teach- 
ing, ministering to 4000 churches and missions every 
week, and scattered all over the continent and among 
all tribes and peoples from Maine to Alaska and from 
Florida to California. 

In the last thirty years we have contributed sixteen 
millions of dollars toward the evangelization of our 
land through our Board of Home Missions. 

It is owing to this policy of liberal seed-sowing 
that we now have 7000 ministers, 7600 churches, 
about 1,000,000 communicants, and over 1,000,000 
children in our Sunday-schools. Of all the thous- 
ands of our churches on our roll to-day, probably 
nine out of every ten have received home missionary 
aid. 

What then is the logical relation of most if not 
all of our churches to home missions? It is the 
relation of the child to the mother, of the debtor to 
the creditor, of the beneficiary to the benefactor. 

By every sentiment of gratitude we are all bound 
to the support of this great agency for the evangeliza- 
tion of our beloved country. 

We are also bound to it by sacred obligations to 
the dead ; to the noble army of missionaries from 
Francis Makemie, the founder of organized Presby- 
terianism in 1684, down to Crocker of New York, 
Barret of Wisconsin, Dennen of California, Matheson 
of Minnesota, Sibbet of Idaho, and Wilson of Colorado, 



282 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

who died at the front in the service of the Church 
during the past year. 

What worthy tribute can we pay to these frontier 
soldiers of Christ, this heroic vanguard of Presbyter- 
ianisin in its triumphant march of conquest from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, these pioneers of the Church. 
who plunged into the wilderness and with their axes. 
their lonely camp-fires, and their Bibles, blazed the 
way of civilization and Christianity across a contin- 
ent ! Where is the historian who can write their 
history, the mathematician who can compute the 
sum of their spiritual achievements, the tongue of 
fire that can do justice to their heroism and their 
fidelity to the Master? 

Would the historian find the secret springs of our 
national intelligence and morality, would the poet 
find inspiration for his muse, would the Christian 
find examples of self-sacrifice, would the patriotic 
orator electrify his audience, would the statesman 
find his peers, let them camp along the long trail of 
these men from the prison of Makemie in Xew York 
to the prison of Jackson in Alaska : from the lonely 
horseman of the 18th century facing westward and 
slowly climbing the Alleghenies, to the horseman of 
the 19th century, the marvellous missionary horse- 
man in buckskin from Idaho, facing eastward, his 
heart burning with patriotic fervor and his eye fixed 
on the capital of the nation three thousand miles 
away. The world will yet ring with the wonderful 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 283 

story of his brave ride for four stars in " Old Glory." 
Talk not to me of Sheridan's ride or of the gallop of 
Paul Revere ! Speed away, Whitman, speed away ! 
Onward, right onward, like a flash of light through 
a thousand miles of barbaric night! Speed away, 
Whitman, speed away ! nor slacken thy pace, for an 
empire is ours if thou winnest the race! Speed 
away, Whitman, speed away ! Ah, where are the 
plumed knights of more courage, where the Crusaders 
who went forth in holier cause ! Where is the moun- 
tain or valley upon which home missionaries have 
not planted the standard of the Cross and consecrated 
them as holy places by their lonely graves ? Imper- 
ishably dear to us should be not only the cause 
but the country for which they gave their lives. 
Do we talk of dedicating America to Christ? it is 
already dedicated. 

To use the language of Abraham Lincoln when he 
broke forth in the resistless eloquence of woe over the 
graves of Gettysburg, " We cannot dedicate, we cannot 
consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave 
men, living and dead, who struggled here, have con- 
secrated it far above our power to add or detract. It 
is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to their 
unfinished work." 

We have obligations also to our hundreds of living 
missionaries. They are our color-bearers at the front. 
In four thousand centers there they have planted our 
standards and are holding their ground. The frontier 



284 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

is not determined by geographical lines; it is wher- 
ever sin is strongest and spiritual destitution is great- 
est. It is as trul} T in New York City as in Alaska ; 
in the mountains of North Carolina as in the moun- 
tains of Utah. There is one peculiar thing about the 
home missionary. Wherever you find him, whether 
in the crowded city, the Mexican Pueblo, the Indian 
village, or the Klondyke mining camp, he is the 
unique man of the community. Unlike the lawyer, 
the doctor, the merchant, and the miner, he is not 
there on a private enterprise, not there to make 
money. His mission is nobler. He is there as an 
ambassador of Christ, and as the representative of a 
great Church. 

Often he finds the whole community against him. 
Panoplied by prayer, and armed only with the sword 
of the Spirit, he enters the strongholds of Satan, 
penetrates saloons, brothels, and gambling hells, and 
fearlessly attacks intemperance, profanity, prostitu- 
tion, lawlessness, infidelit}^, and vice in its most 
hideous and gigantic forms. 

By the grace of God he wins, wins every time. 
Patiently he preaches the Gospel, sows the germs of 
law, order, morals, culture, and religion, and gradu- 
ally transforms little hells of humanity into law- 
abiding, God-worshipping, Christian communities. 

What shall we do with our fellow-soldiers who are 
thus bravely doing this work ? Shall we cut off their 
supplies and leave them to perish — shall we call a 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 285 

halt and order them to retreat ? God forbid ! Treas- 
ure we have in uncounted millions. 

Finally, we are bound to the support of this cause 
by most solemn obligations to our Lord and Master. 
It is not an optional matter with us to do or not to 
do. It is in the line of obedience to his last com- 
mand, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
gospel to every creature." Mark 16 : 15. 

This command was enforced by the thunders of 
Sinai, the agony of Gethsemane, the imperative and 
glorious message of Calvary, and all the obligations 
of the redeemed to their Redeemer. 

At the basis of this command lies the value of 
the human soul — the lost soul. No man can appraise 
it, for no man knows its value. Only its Maker can 
set a true value upon it, and by faith we must take it 
at his appraisement. Christ said it was worth more 
than the whole world, and God said it was worth 
Calvary. 

The inspiration to all evangelistic work lies in just 
three things, viz. : faith, gratitude, and the value of 
the soul. 

OUR FIELD. 

The field we have to evangelize affords an interest- 
ing study. We now number seventy-five millions of 
people, one-half of which number are of foreign 
parentage or foreign born. 

One-tenth of our population, or over seven millions, 
have come to us in the last twenty years. And still 



286 WEST3IIXSTEB ASSEMBLY 

they come. The vanguard will be followed by the 
army, the surf by the mountainous swellings of the 
ocean ! 

In some of our large cities the population is now 
less than one-third native American. They are 
foreign cities including American colonies on Amer- 
ican soil. Xew York City's l.SOO.OuO shows over a 
million citizens of foreign parentage or foreign 
born. 

Analyze the nationalities of Xew York or Chicago 
and tell me what kind of an American is coming out 
of this admixture of blood. German. Irish. Bohemian, 
Polish. Swedish. Danish. Norwegian. French. "Welsh, 
Belgian. Russian. Dutch. Hawaiian. Spanish. Syrian. 
Swiss, Japanese, Italian, African. Greek, Hungarian, 
Scotch, Chinese. Indian, and Hebrew. 

In view of the preponderance of foreigners we see 
that the American of to-day is not the descendant of 
the Puritan, the Cavalier, the Huguenot, the Cove- 
nanter, or even of revolutionary ancestors. The sons 
and daughters of the Revolution are now in a hope- 
less minority — so rare as to be pointed out as curious 
animals in our great national menagerie, and tagged 
with a button of yellow and blue to distinguish their 
species. 

We are told that in India there are one hundred 
Indias, one hundred dialects, and one hundred phases 
of religion with which the missionary has to contend. 
Are we coming to that in this country *? In New York 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 287 

city there are numerous foreign colonies where one 
may see here and there the curious sign " English 
spoken here." That would not be strange in Paris 
or Berlin, but there is something of a shock in it when 
seen in New York. 

Are we to have a hundred Italias, Germanias and 
Scandinavias here ? No, the English language must 
break up these solidarities, education must let in the 
light, and the Gospel must evangelize them. We 
must attack them with the missionary, the colporteur, 
the Bible visitor, the tract-distributor, the college set- 
tlement, the reading-room, the coffee-house, the kin- 
dergarten, and the Sunday-school. 

We are told that with this foreign invasion has 
come in a great tide of drunkenness, and that the 
rum power has grown to alarming proportions. We 
have 165,000 public schools, and they cost us $140,- 
000,000 per annum. We have also 215,000 saloons, 
and our drink bill is $1,000,000,000 per annum. Ah, 
alcohol is our domestic Weyler ! the drunkard, the 
widow, and the orphan are our " reconcentrados ;" 
ghastly is the ruin wrought, pitiful the poverty and 
hunger, holy is the war-cr} r , " The saloon must go !" 

Will it ever go ? It certainly will if we evangelize, 
if Christian faith survives, if the Gospel has free 
course, and if the Church unites to preach, pray, and 
vote it out of existence in the name of the Lord. God 
is not dead, and his name is not withdrawn from the 
use of his people. It is doing wonders every day. 



L>>s WESTMIXSTER ASSEMBLY 

Before his name many an ironclad Philistine stronger 
than Goliath of Gath has fallen and will fall. 

But, watchman, what of the night ; the dark night 
of ignorance, superstition, and sin among these great 
foreign masses; among our 40,000 Alaskans, our 
150,000 Mexicans, our 200,000 Mormons, our 250,000 
Indians, our 2,000,000 mountain whites, and our 
8,000,000 negroes? The morning is dawning, the 
light is penetrating the darkness, Christianity and 
education are doing their work, spiritual and intel- 
lectual lighthouses are being distributed over the 
continent as thickly as stars on the field of night, 
and slowly but surely in the rising of the Sun of 
Righteousness, the shadows will flee away. 

As to foreign immigration, we should take the 
broadest view of it possible. Our Constitution makes 
America " the parliament of man, the federation of 
the world." This is manifest destiny. Unlike Pales- 
tine, our country has not been set apart for a family 
of one blood — a close corporation. It was intended 
to be the seat of a great nation gathered out of all 
kindreds and peoples, unified by the love of certain 
principles, and, like the Church of Christ, a visible 
demonstration of the kinship of mankind. 

We look on in wonder at the absorbing power of 
our Republic. It is almost miraculous. From the 
beginning it has been, like the Church, receiving 
Parthians, Medes, and Elamites. Or we may liken it 
to the ocean which receives into its bosom rivers 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 289 

white, black, yellow, and red, impregnated with the 
minerals, soils, and refuse of all lands, and, like the 
ocean, it seems to transform them into its own char- 
acter. 

Foreign immigration is no new thing. It has 
always been a feeder to our national life. The names 
of foreign-born patriots are graven with a pen of iron 
in our Declaration of Independence. It is not birth 
but principle that makes the American. We have 
seen that the American of to-day is a composite man, 
slowly evolving from many nationalities. It is the 
province of the Church and State to educate this 
man. The State must mould him politically, and 
the Church must transform him morally and spirit- 
ually. 

Raw material is cheap, it is manufacturing that 
costs. Two hundred years ago the Dutch acquired 
title to Manhattan Island for twenty-four dollars — 
all the barren soil was worth. To-day it supports the 
great American metropolis, pinnacled with churches, 
hospitals, asylums, schools, public buildings, palaces, 
marts of trade, and is worth one hundred millions 
for every single dollar of its original cost. 

It is not what the raw citizen is, but what we put into 
him, what we may make out of him, that constitutes 
his real value. This whole subject resolves itself into 
what the Gospel can do for man, and what God can 
do with foreign clay. 

Looking back into history we see that he once took 

19 



200 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

a piece of Hebrew clay and made the apostle Paul. 
Of French clay he made a Calvin, of Italian clay a 
Savonarola, of German clay a Luther, of Scotch clay 
a Knox, of Bohemian clay he made a Huss, and of 
British clay he made that fine old presbyterian bishop 
known as St. Patrick, whom the Irish have adopted 
as their patron saint. 

Not long since I sat on a platform at the Carlisle 
Indian School, and looked down upon seven hundred 
bright young Indian faces illumined by the light of 
a new nature born within them, under Captain Pratt's 
splendid system of industrial and Christian training. 

It will only take about a generation of such train- 
ing to transform barbarism into Christianity. 

Upon that platform were two white men, of 
foreign-born parentage, now Christian governors. 
Thirty-five years ago they were homeless orphans, 
miserable street gamins wallowing in the slums of 
New York City. 

This is what religion and education will do for the 
commonest kind of clay and the rawest kind of 
material in America ! Some there are who take a 
pessimistic view of our future, they predict moral 
degeneracy and political disintegration, and assert 
that our life forces cannot permeate, cannot unify, 
cannot make a living organism out of so many 
diverse elements in our body politic. This is true if 
we leave God and the Gospel out of the question. 
But who can measure the actual leavening influence 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 291 

of the Gospel upon any nation. We cannot deter- 
mine it by ordinary standards of morality, or by the 
number of our schools, churches, and communi- 
cants. Some great test of the national conscience is 
necessary. Such a test is now being made, and I 
doubt if the world has ever seen such a magnificent 
spectacle ; a spectacle in which seventy-five millions 
of people, moved by one mighty impulse, have fallen 
into line, and are all keeping step and time, "the 
brogan with the patent leather, the kid slipper with 
the wooden shoe " — all keeping time not only to the 
music of the "Star-Spangled Banner," but to the 
drum-beat of the Christian conscience, yes to the 
drum-beat of the Gospel of the Son of God, as 
sounded forth by the brave old drummer who 
marched down the Damascus road in Palestine, 1800 
years ago ! 

Where in all history has a nation gone to war, not 
in self-defence and not for spoils, but for sweet 
humanity's sake? Where in history has a powerful 
nation been willing to sacrifice the blood of its best 
sons for downtrodden and oppressed widows and 
orphans, aliens in language and race? 

This movement marks a distinct era in the history 
of mankind : an era which proclaims the supremacy 
of humanity over tyrants, of God over governments, 
of conscience over selfishness, and of morals over all 
international laws. 

Here then is one test of our national integrity, 



292 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

and of the power of the Gospel over our national 
conscience. But we have seen another almost as 
remarkable, and that was the moral courage, the 
self-restraint, the dominion of principle over passion, 
as displayed by our country in its suspension of 
judgment for sixty long days after the foul assassina- 
tion of two hundred and fifty of her sons in a Spanish 
harbor, while in the meantime a Spanish warship rode 
as peacefully and securely at her anchorage in New 
York Bay as if she had been at Cadiz ! 

I have somewhere seen a great painting of a 
tawny African lion, lithe, powerful, trembling with 
anger, every muscle knotted, and ready to spring. 
By its side was a child with a fearless eye and an 
uplifted hand holding the infuriated monarch of the 
forest under complete control. 

That lion illustrates the temper of the American 
people on the fifteenth day of Februar} 7 , 1898, when 
our whole land was in sackcloth for its dead ; and in 
the child holding the lion in check we may see reso- 
lute, God-fearing William McKinley ! 

If the restraint of angry passion is a sign of 
Christian virtue in the individual, it is equally such 
when seen in a nation. Is not this, too, another test 
and evidence of the power of the Gospel and of its 
leavening influence upon our national character? 
Let us not despair, the Gospel is all-powerful. It has 
lifted nations from barbarism, and it will lift this one 
to millennial glory. Statesmen the world over pre- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 293 

diet our glowing future. Matthew Arnold with all 
his prejudices writes, " America holds the future of 
the world." William E. Gladstone says, " America 
has the basis of the grandest empire ever built by 
man : at the end of the 20th century her population 
will be six hundred millions." 

I have spoken little of the extent of our domain 
upon which the untold millions of coming centuries 
are yet to dwell. 

The East we are supposed to know, but what about 
the grand Eldorado, the eight great empires as large 
as Spain lying beyond the Mississippi ? 

The great West ! Seven great trunk lines of rail- 
way and their branches now gridiron its surface, 
connecting the East with the semi-tropical garden of 
fruit and flowers on our sunset coast, and with white- 
winged fleets from China and Japan. Over these 
lines a tide of imigration is constantly rolling west- 
ward and opening up wonderful fields of agricultural 
and mineral wealth. 

That great buffalo pasture twelve hundred miles 
long and five hundred wide, lying along the eastern 
lap of the Rocky Mountains, extending from the 
Gulf of Mexico on the South to Manitoba on the 
North — a region in which I hunted with the wild 
Indian in my bojdiood — is now dotted over with the 
cottage homes, villages, and cities of the dominant 
race. 

It is no longer a synonym for Indians and wild 



294 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

beasts, for its desert stretches are now populous and 
clad in Eastern forms of civilization. The locomotive 
has outstripped the woodsman with his axe and rifle, 
and has become the fleet-footed pioneer. 

The Rocky Mountains which in Daniel Webster's 
day were thought to be the natural and insur- 
mountable limits of empire ; those hoary sentinels 
of the ages whose forms are wrapped in mantles of 
eternal snow, and whose majestic heads tower among 
the stars, now bend their proud necks beneath the 
feet of man the conqueror ! Aye, even the locomo- 
tive has climbed their lofty summits, and high over 
all it parts the clouds of heaven in its thundering 
course, breaking aerial silences — heretofore unbroken 
save by the voice of the storm king in his fury — and 
wakening the slumbering valleys beneath to the 
grand coming of a nation in its march to the western 
sea. 

I believe in God and in his great purpose concerning 
this land. I believe in Christ and in the power of 
his Gospel to redeem it from all its sins. I believe 
in the principles and doctrines of the Reformation 
and their final supremacy. And I believe in our 
godly foundation-builders of Church and State, and 
in the final achievement and Christian capstone of 
the structure they commenced. 

As we look back over but one intervening century 
we see them at their family altars, and in the Church, 
the Presbytery, and the General Assembly. Again 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 295 

we have glimpses of them in Continental uniforms 
at Lexington, Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, Trenton, 
and Yorktown. 

Foundation-builders were they, and much of their 
work was done in want and pain, in poverty and 
woe, in storm and cloud and battle. Through blind- 
ness they saw to some extent — but, oh, how limited — 
the glory of our day. Could they have seen the 
present superstructure, the world's great temple of 
civil and religious liberty, how it would have nerved 
their hearts for battle ! 

From this harvest of a thousand-fold the fruit of 
their seed-sowing, let us, their children, take heart. 
Let us sow the seed of the Gospel, multiply our seed- 
sowers, do our work faithfully, in our day and gener- 
ation; believe in the leavening, transforming, and 
all-conquering power of the Word of God ; and look 
forward confidently and enthusiastically to the glory 
of a coming day when this broad land shall be as a 
field of waving palms, a Christian nation such as the 
world has never seen, the pride of Mount Zion and 
the joy of the whole earth. 

"Zion rise, thy cords to lengthen, 
Hear the Master's rallying call ! 
Forward ! all thy stakes to strengthen, 
Plant thy banners over all ! 
"Cast thy bread upon the waters, 
Sow thy seed o'er all the sod, 
By the hands of sons and daughters 
Reap this continent for God!" 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES AND 
FOREIGN MISSIONS. 



BY 

Mr. KOBEET E. SPEER 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES AND 
FOREIGN MISSIONS. 



BY 

Mr. KOBEKT E. SPEEE. 



And now, at last, at the close of this splendid day, 
we come to this final theme, "The Presbyterian 
Churches and Foreign Missions." A modest theme 
doubtless it appears to some, but perhaps if I should 
rephrase it, " The Presbyterian Churches and Their 
Relation to the Christian Conquest of the World/' 
we should see more clearly its splendor and its 
solemnity. After all, this is the vital issue ; here at 
last, at this bar, must every religion, every form of 
religious conviction, stand to be judged. Alexander 
Henderson and the Westminster Confession are not 
the final tests of the Presbyterian Churches. As our 
Master has said, it is not by clear perception, nor by 
crisp statement of doctrine, nor by forms of worship 
and of ritual, that religion is to be judged or dis- 
cipleship to be tested; but by the warmth of its 
brotherhood and the tenderness of its love. "By 
this" said he, " shall all men know that ye are my 
disciples, if ye have love one for another." And he 

299 



300 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

himself declared that on that wondrous day in 
which all the nations and peoples and beliefs of the 
earth shall stand before his throne, the ultimate test 
of all principles of human conduct, the ultimate test 
of all forms of worship and faith, will be found, not 
in their power to develop individual character, nor 
in their ability to form and consist with satisfactory 
doctrinal symbols, but in their power to persuade 
men to lives of self-forgetful service of their kind. 
" When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and 
all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon 
the throne of his glory : And before him .shall be 
gathered all nations ; and he shall separate them one 
from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from 
the goats : And he shall set the sheep on his right 
hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King 
say to them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of 
my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you 
from the foundation of the world : For I was an 
hungred, and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty, and 
ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me 
in: Naked, aud ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye 
visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me." 
The Church of Christ was not established by him 
as a society for personal spiritual culture, nor for the 
development of personal character and refinement as 
ends in themselves, nor for the satisfaction of those 
demands of the intellectual life which crave doctrinal 
explication of the mysteries of the unseen or of the 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 301 

divine life that has been manifested in history. 
Christ's Church came like Christ — not to be minis- 
tered unto, but to minister, and to give her life a 
ransom for many; and by its fruits in unselfish ser- 
vice and self-forgetful helpfulness must every branch 
of that Church be judged. 

Nor are the Presbyterian Churches submitted to 
their final test by any appraisement of their relations 
to education, or to the young, or to home missions, or 
to the people. Such tests are preliminary, not ulti- 
mate. If the vision, the mission, the message of 
the Presbyterian Churches were provincial or ethnic, 
such testings might suffice; but against just this 
conception of a local design and a limited destiny 
we and our fathers have ever made protest with 
strenuousness ; and have ever claimed for our faith 
those characteristics of universality without which 
we should be obliged to abandon also the contention 
that it was divine. 

The Presbyterian Churches, therefore, have ever 
recognized the validity and the solemnity of this test 
to which we are now subjecting them. They have 
affirmed, as no other Churches have done, the world's 
utter need of the gospel, the unique sufficiency of 
Christianity, and the solitary lordship and sovereignty 
of Christ. Turning toward the cross, their members 
have ever cried — 

"Thou, O Christ, art all we want;" 



302 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

and turning toward the weary world, have added, 

"And thou, Christ, art all they want." 

We have never been so much wiser than our Master 
as not to be willing to affirm with utter loyalty to their 
narrowness his own words, " I am the way and the 
truth and the life; no man cometh unto the Father 
but by me." And we have never dared to be so un- 
true to the world's own life as to proclaim any broader 
message than Simon Peter's, " There is none other 
name under heaven, given among men, whereby we 
must be saved." There is a King, one Jesus, and he 
is the only King. 

Holding these deep convictions, the Presbyterian 
Churches have never been intimidated by charges of 
intolerance or illiberality. Fidelity to the truth of 
God and to the deepest needs of our sin-smitten 
humanity can never be bigotry. And we have never 
been ashamed in this matter to stand with him in 
whom alone God came to reconcile the world to him- 
self, and whose attitude, as Horace Bushnell has 
pointed out, "is charity, not liberality; and the two 
are as wide apart in their practical implications as 
adhering to all truth and being loose in all. Charity 
holds fast the minutest atoms of truth as being precious 
and divine, offended by even so much as a thought 
of laxity. Liberality loosens the terms of truth ; per- 
mitting easily and with careless magnanimity varia- 
tions from it ; consenting, as it were, in its own sove- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 303 

reignty to overlook or allow them ; and subsiding 
thus ere long into a licentious indifference to all 
truth and a general defect of responsibility in regard 
to it. Charity extends allowance to men ; liberality, 
to falsities themselves. Charity takes the truth to be 
sacred and immovable ; liberality allows it to be 
marred and maimed at pleasure. How different the 
manner of Jesus in this respect from that unreverent, 
feeble laxity that lets the errors be as good as the 
truths, and takes it for a sign of intellectual eminence 
that one can be floated comfortably in the abysses of 
liberalism." 

Our Churches have never been willing to buy a 
cheap reputation for liberalism, or to curry favor 
with those with whom indifference and uncertainty 
are the synonyms of enlightenment, at the price of 
treason to the world's Life and the world's Redeemer. 

Nor has the revival of the study of comparative 
religions, with its tendency to pare down the unique- 
ness and compromise the supremacy of Christi- 
anity, diverted the great Churches to which we be- 
long from their conviction that Christ alone can save 
men ; that out of him men " are without hope and 
without God in the world ;" and that " at the revela- 
tion of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with the angels 
of his power in flaming fire, he will render vengeance 
to them that know not God, and to them that obey 
not the gospel of our Lord Jesus," however smooth 
the words or soft the poetry of their superstitions. 



304 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

Once for all for us the final judgment in the matter 
of comparative religion was passed at Bethlehem and 
on Calvary. All the non-Christian religions except 
Mohammedanism were here before Christ came. God 
looked down upon them all and judged them insuf- 
ficient ; and by sending his Son to the best of them 
and condemning that, passed his final and conclusive 
judgment upon all. The incarnation closes the issue 
of comparative religion. Calvary was a colossal 
blunder, or it was the necessary fruit of God's convic- 
tion that Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Shinto- 
ism, Parsiism, Judaism, Shamanism, Fetichism, had 
been weighed in the balance and been found wanting. 
Holding these opinions, consider for a moment the 
moral loathsomeness of the position of the Presby- 
terian Churches if they had not been missionary. 
Could more hideous enormity of guilt be conceived 
than that of Churches which believe that they stand 
in the midst of a lost world, holding in their posses- 
sion a gospel of adequate life, who hear in their ears 
for ever the voice of their Risen Lord saying : " Go 
ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every 
creature," and the wail of a dying world stumbling 
blindfold around the great altar-stairs of God, and 
who yet go their way, eat, drink, and make merry, 
with no regard for the commanding Master, and no 
pity for his weary world ? I say solemnly that the 
anti-missionary Presbyterian church, or the anti- 
missionary member of our Church, or, even the 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 305 

church or church -member who is not opposed, but 
only indifferent to the work of the world's evangeli- 
zation, is either disloyal to the fundamental convic- 
tions of our Churches — aye, to the very foundations 
on which Christianity itself rests ; or else, if yielding 
mental assent to these convictions, is an object of 
moral baseness beyond our power to describe, as also 
beyond our capacity to condemn. To believe that a 
man is dying, to stand by his bedside with adequate 
remedy, to be enjoined by acknowledged obligation 
to offer the remedy, and to refuse or to neglect, what 
can be imagined more awful, more repellant, more 
antagonistic to the spirit of a just and generous God 
than this ? 

The full force of these awful considerations has 
ever been felt by our Church. She has recognized 
from the beginning that she must be a missionary 
Church, or forfeit alike her prerogatives, her self-re- 
spect, and the blessing of God. In the General As- 
sembly of 1838 she declared, in the first annual 
report of her Board of Foreign Missions, "In the 
providence of God and by his blessing, no branch of 
the Church of Christ has an organization so perfect 
to become a missionary community as that of the 
Presbyterian Church in the United States of America." 
Two years later a solemn resolution was adopted, 
prescribing a certain course of activity, to the end, as 
was specified, " That our whole Church in its organ- 
ized form may become what she ought to be, a mis- 

20 



306 WEST3HNSTER ASSEMBLY 

sionary Church ; and that all other churches of other 
denominations may become animated with a true 
missionary spirit, and do their part in accomplishing 
the great work to which the Head of the Church is 
now summoning his people, the work of enlightening, 
reforming, and converting the world, that he may 
reign over all nations in the fulness of his grace and 
glory." Seven years later, on the 22d of May, the 
General Assembly listened and gave assent to these 
words of James W. Alexander : " Those who are gone 
admitted the claim of Christ's cause on us as a 
Church. One of them, especially, has left us his tes- 
timony. Consider, reverend brethren, these words, 
of date March 4, 1831, words suggested to this court 
of Jesus Christ, by Dr. Rice : l In the judgment of 
this General Assembly, one of the principal objects 
of the institution of the Church by Jesus Christ was, 
not so much the salvation of individual Christians — 
for, whosoever believeth shall be saved — as the com- 
munication of the blessing of the Gospel to the desti- 
tute, with the efficiency of united efforts.' The Pres- 
byterian Church is a missionary society, the- object of 
which is to aid in the conversion of the world, and 
every member of the Church is a member for life of 
said society, and bound to do all in his power for 
the accomplishment of this object." In 1867 the 
Standing Committee on Foreign Missions reported to 
the General Assembly a resolution beginning with 
the declaration, " This Assembly regards the whole 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 307 

Church as a missionary society whose main work is 
to spread the knowledge of salvation." Our brethren 
of the Southern Assembly have been equally out- 
spoken. " In the Church South," as Dr. Houston de- 
clared at the Centennial Celebration of this Assembly 
at Philadelphia in 1888, " from the day on which she 
first took up her independent task, foreign missions 
have been recognized as the imperial cause. When 
in that day she found herself girt about as with a 
wall of fire, when no missionary had in his power to 
go forth from her bosom to the regions beyond, the 
first General Assembly put on record the solemn de- 
claration that, as this Church now unfurled her ban- 
ner to the world, she desired distinctly and deliber- 
ately to inscribe on it, in immediate connection 
with the Headship of her Lord, his last command, 
' Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to 
every creature,' regarding it as the great end of her 
organization, and obedience to it as the indispensable 
condition of her Lord's promised presence." 

The General Councils of the Alliance of Reformed 
Churches holding the Presbyterian system, have 
with equal consistency recognized the missionary 
obligations resting upon the broad fellowship of the 
Presbyterian Churches. " As to the constitution of 
the Christian Church," it was declared in the first 
Council, " Whether Presbyterian, Episcopal or Con- 
gregational, or a combination of these various ele- 
ments, doubt and uncertainty may prevail ; but as to 



308 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

its missionary character there can be no question. 
When the Church ceases to do this, its very exist- 
ence is at stake. Missions are but the simplest 
dictates of Christianity, and no more than decent 
tributes to it. They are essential, not extraneous to 
its nature." At this same Council the indubitable 
truth was recognized that, " If the Bible is to be our 
teacher, all dispute or doubt as to the obligation of 
evangelizing the nations is foreclosed at once. To 
deny it would be as complete an abnegation of 
Christianity as to deny the duty of loving the 
Lord our God with all our heart, or loving our 
neighbor as ourselves." In the Third Council, that 
incarnation of the apostolic missionary spirit, Dr. W. 
Fleming Stevenson, swept the whole Council with 
him as he gave expression to the fundamental faith 
of our Churches in St. Enoch's at Belfast, in the 
words, " But if Christian men seem now agreed that 
the Word of God does not merely contain here 
and there a missionary chapter, or the music of a 
missionary psalm, or some clear words of prophecy, 
or more clear and commanding word of Christ, but 
is throughout, an intensely missionary book, the 
missionary spirit being of the very essence of its 
revelation; if it is a book that responds, with the 
sensitiveness of a divine sympathy, to the cry of the 
lost but seeking spirit, to the burdened sign of pagan 
Asia as well as to the anguish of those that doubt 
and yearn in Europe and America ; if it is a book 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 309 

that proclaims, with every one of its tongues of fire, 
that there is a kingdom of God to grow out from it, 
instinct with its own spirit, a kingdom of living men 
in whom its revelation will be seen in action, by 
whom its sympathy and its offer of life and rest will 
be borne to every nation, in whom the great hunger 
for the redemption of the world has struck so deep, 
that every one who is of that kingdom must hunger 
with the same intensity, and look out on the world 
with the very eyes of Christ, and see, not in dreams 
and fancies of the poets, but by faith — faith which is 
no dreamer, but real and practical, carving swiftly 
the way to its own end — see, by faith, the march of 
the people back to God, the idols flung aside, and the 
cry of all — 

" Nothing in my hand I bring, 
Simply to thy cross I cling;" 

if that is the idea of the kingdom of God, then even 
our noble missionary societies are not the adequate 
expression of this enterprise of Christian missions, 
but are only preparatory, and the conception of a 
missionary society we are to keep before us is of the 
Church herself, as broad as the Church, as manifold 
as her gifts, as numerous as her membership, and as 
much clothed as she can claim to be, with power 
from on high. That, in theory, is the position that 
has been taken by the great body of the Presbyterian 
Churches, and what I plead for is nothing more than 



310 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

that this theory should be wrought into practice." 
In a later Council still, to quote but from one other, 
the report on foreign missions concluded " with the 
hope that clearer, fuller expression than ever before 
may be given to the great principle that the Gospel 
must be preached to every creature, and that ' mis- 
sions ' (in the well-known words of Alexander Duff) 
1 are the chief end of the Christian Church.' " And Dr. 
Murray Mitchell added, "Oh, then, let a voice, 
a proclamation, go forth from this great gathering, 
which shall be re-echoed from every General Assembly 
and Synod and Presbyterian church, and which 
shall go on reverberating from shore to shore, until 
the heart of every member and adherent of our 
communion is aroused, and the zeal for the glory of 
God and the salvation of man rises to the height of 
a holy passion." 

The missionary spirit and conviction, therefore, 
are of the very fabric and texture of our Presbyterian 
Churches. Opposition to missions or indifference to 
missions is heresy. There is no worse heresy. The 
spirit of antagonism or indifference is heretical. The 
man who is guilty of it is unworthy of his fathers ; 
unworthy of the principles on which the Church 
rests; unworthy of the Church herself; unworthy, 
most of all, of that dear Master, who, though he 
was on an equality with God, counted not that 
equalit} T a prize to be jealously retained, but made 
himself of no reputation, and took on him the form 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 311 

of a foreign missionary, and became obedient unto 
death, even the death of the cross. Such heresy 
should not be tolerated with easy carelessness. 
That Assembly was acting with sound judgment and 
a solemn recognition of its responsibilties, which 
instructed the Presbyteries to enter upon their records 
the names of all churches failing to contribute to the 
cause of foreign missions, with the reasons for their 
delinquency. 

These fine protestations of missionary sympathy 
have not been confined to Assembly deliverance or 
fervent resolution. The Presbyterian Churches have 
deliberately assumed heavy and far-reaching re- 
sponsibilities. Our fathers in this Church spread 
their missions all over the world. No other Amer- 
ican Church has extended its banners or flung out 
its line of battle as we have done. Our missions are 
on every continent save Europe, and we confront 
every non-Christian religion. The American Board 
stands with us before Islam, but has no missions in 
South America. The Methodist Board works with 
us in South America, but has no missions to Islam. 
While the Baptist Union has missions neither in 
South America nor among the Mohammedans, save, 
as like the Methodists, it touches these in India. With 
our associated Presbyterian Churches we have spread 
out over the world as not even the Church of Eng- 
land has done ; and while the Roman Catholic 
Church is more penetrative and universal, we at 



312 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

least surpass it in the number of missionaries, in the 
indomitable zeal, and in the undiscouragable faith 
with which in Egypt, Persia, Turkey, and the Pun- 
jab we are making our assault on the citadels of 
Moham m edanism . 

An unexaggerated estimate of the numbers for 
whom we, of this single Church, have made ourselves 
responsible by our occupation of heathen soil and by 
the principles of missionary comity, would assign to 
us perhaps not less than 160,000,000 of people. We 
were among the first to plant our missions in Japan, 
with its 40,000,000; Syria with its 1,500,000; Brazil 
with its 14,000,000 ; Mexico with its 12,000,000 ; Chili 
with its 2,500,000. We occupy alone Siaru and Laos 
with their undetermined millions, estimated by some 
at 6,000,000, and by others at 30,000,000 ; Colombia, 
with its 4,000,000 ; Guatemala, with its 1,200,000 : all 
of northern Persia, with its 5,000,000. Korea, with 
its 12,000,000, was opened practically by our own 
missionaries, and in China we bear great responsi- 
bility, in many cases the major responsibility, for 
18,000,000 in the Province of Pechili ; 35,000,000 in 
the Provinces of Chekiang and Kiangsu ; 36,000,000 in 
the Province of Shantung ; 30,000,000 in the Province 
of Canton and the Island of Hainan ; and for the 
21,000,000 of Hunan and the 32,000,000 of Anhui. 
While in India, we have laid our missions in the 
northwest Provinces with their 47,000,000 ; the Pun- 
jab with its 21,000,000 ; the Bombay Presidency with 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 313 

its 19,000,000 — for all of whom, we, with others, 
shall be obliged to give account in that great day 
when we stand with them, face to face, before the judg- 
ment throne of him who came, not to condemn, but 
to save the world. 

On every continent, on the islands of the sea, on the 
soil of every non-Christian faith, the Presbyterian 
Churches have planted their standards. No Churches 
have recognized so clearly, or with such magnanimity, 
the rules of mission comity. None have been so 
careful to avoid transgression upon territory or among 
people for which other Churches have made them- 
selves responsible ; but even so, driven by the mighty 
impulse of our deep convictions, constrained by the 
love of that Christ for whose unique and stainless 
divinity we have been ever jealous, eager to offer to 
break the bread of life and to reveal to the restless 
millions who await " that light whose dawning maketh 
all things new," we have gone out as our Master bade, 
through the lands near at hand, on and on, unto the 
uttermost parts of the earth. 

And the responsibilities that are implied in God's 
manifest blessing upon our Churches at home are as 
great and solemn as the responsibilities we have 
avowedly assumed. Mr. Moody, whose shrewd views 
of men and movements seldom err, said to a friend 
of mine not long ago, as he sought advice regarding 
a proposition made to him in connection with one of 
the boards of our Church, " It will be a place of great 



314 WEST3fIJS T STEB ASSEMBLY 

power. That Church has the brains and the wealth 
of the United States." As to our intellectual capacity, 
we may let others speak for us ; but it is common 
fame that whatever wealth can do, the Presbyterian 
Churches can do if they wish. The wealth of the 
United States according to the census of 1890 was 
$65,000,000,000. According to the same census, one- 
twentieth of the communicant members of the 
Churches were Presbyterians. While not all the 
population of the country is in the Churches, to as- 
sign to the Presbyterian Churches a proportion of the 
total wealth of the country as large as the proportion 
sustained by the Presbyterian communicants to the 
total Church membership of the country, would be 
well within the mark. It was asserted here the other 
evening that one-sixth of the wealth of this land is 
in the hands of the Presbyterians. Let us assume 
that one-twentieth is. According to the census statis- 
tics of our national wealth eight years ago this pro- 
portion would assign to our churches three billions 
of dollars. The average annual increase of our 
national wealth for the decade ending 1890 was two 
billions of dollars ; the same proportionate increase 
during the present decade would make our present 
national wealth about ninety billions of dollars ; one- 
twentieth of this would assign to Presbyterian control 
four and one-half billions of dollars ; while our pro- 
portionate share of the annual increase of our na- 
tional wealth would be one hundred and fifty mil- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 315 

lions. Our present gifts to missions, therefore, amount 
to one five-thousandth of our wealth, and less than 
one one-hundred-and-fiftieth, not of our income, but 
of what we annually save out of our income and add 
to our stock of accumulated values. One-third, or at 
the utmost, one-half of the treasure that the Presby- 
terian Churches alone lay up annually where moth 
and rust corrupt and where thieves break through 
and steal, would be sufficient, given annually, to sup- 
port the work of the world's evangelization on a scale 
that would promise the effective proclamation of the 
gospel throughout the world, to the extent, probably, 
to which that responsibility rests upon the foreign 
mission enterprise. 

As to men and women, it is estimated that two mil- 
lion young men and women will be graduated from 
colleges and higher institutions in this land in this 
generation. How many of these will be Presbyterians 
it is impossible to say. One-twentieth of them would 
be a low estimate. According to this estimate, 100,000 
3^oung men and women of our own Church will be 
sent out into life with the fullest and highest training 
which our country has to offer. One-half of this 
number would be sufficient, the wisest and most ju- 
dicious missionaries think, to spread the gospel and 
establish native churches, so as to bring us reasonably 
in view of the issue of the distinctively foreign mis- 
sionary enterprise. And this takes no account of the 
large numbers of men and women who have been 



31 G WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

already trained, and who would be available for this 
glorious enterprise, if the spirit of Elijah and Paul — 
the spirit of blood and of fire, the spirit of passionate 
zeal and burning devotion, should fall upon the 
Church of our love. 

The Presbyterian Churches alone have men and 
money enough for the world's evangelization. With 
no help from any other Church, helped only by the 
spirit of the Most High, we could go forth if we would, 
if it pleased God, to satisfy the heart of the expectant 
Christ, who waits to see of the travail of his soul, and 
to be satisfied. We are but a part of the innumer- 
able company of the Church militant, and no such 
exclusive privilege of glorious service as this will 
ever be ours ; but surely Providence is dumb, and 
the spirit of God has died away into a meaningless 
rustle of a breeze among the leaves, unless by such 
endowments of capacity as these, God is challenging 
us to a new service and a more Christ-like sacrifice. 

And now, on these foundations, what conclusion 
shall we rest ? Shall we turn now to glory in our 
past attainments ? Should the predominant senti- 
ment in our hearts be congratulation over the meas- 
ure of our present obedience ; satisfaction with what 
we have done in the way of the world's evangeliza- 
tion ; or utter repentance at our failure and short- 
comings, and intense desire after new obedience? 
God forbid that we should glory save in the cross of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. Is it a time to praise the 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 317 

Church for her great devotion, when, as has been 
supposed, she gives less than a tithe of a tithe, not of 
her income, but of her annual increase of wealth, for 
the evangelization of the non-Christian world, "Half 
as many mills on the dollar," some one has said, " as 
our fathers gave in 1840 ?" Is it a time to indulge in 
the sedatives of reminiscence and complacent content- 
ment when, as Mrs. Bishop declared in Exeter Hall, 
November 1, 1893, " The work is only beginning, 
and we have barely touched the fringe of it; the 
natural increase of population in the heathen world 
is outstripping at this moment all our efforts ?" Quali- 
fied as it should be, there is nothing soothing or 
soporific in such a statement, or in the fact that of 
the two million villages estimated to exist in Asia, 
probably not two hundred thousand have been 
reached, while three out of every four men in the 
world are ignorant of "the man Christ Jesus, who 
gave himself a ransom for all." 

In comparison with that gift and the world's need, 
what is an offering of $881,000 and 700 men and 
women from the Presbyterian Church of the United 
States of America? Is there any sacrifice here? 
Undoubtedly, but by what standard? David Liv- 
ingstone wrote: 

"Hundreds of young men annually leave our 
shores as cadets ; all their friends rejoice when they 
think of them bearing the commissions of our Queen. 
When any dangerous expedition is planned by gov- 



318 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

eminent, more volunteers apply than are necessary 
to man it. . . . Yet no word of sacrifice there. And 
why should we so regard all we give and do for the 
well-beloved of our souls? Our talk of sacrifices is 
ungenerous and heathenish." 

To pour out blood like water in the campaign in 
the wilderness was heroism ! A lost missionary 
life is fanaticism ! To incur a national debt of 
$2,845,907,626, and to expend $8,000,000,000 for pur- 
poses of bloodshed and war was patriotism. To give 
a few millions for a world's redemption is " charity." 
Such infamous opinions as the second and fourth are 
born of the lenient and dilatory spirit which regards 
the missionary enterprise as a spiritual luxury, and 
the missionary goal as far off, not attainable, not 
demanding the effort immediately to attain it. It 
may be so. We have no right to assume it. " Live," 
cried Luther, " as though Christ had died yesterday, 
risen to-day, and were coming to-morrow." 

Let the standard go up and the tone of missionary 
appeal. There is no need of apology for putting the 
claim of the Cross and the Commission imperatively 
first. It belongs there. The mission cause should 
be presented as an obligation, unavoidable, immedi- 
ate; and not with half-hearted interest or the be- 
numbing contentment born of satisfaction with the 
past, or a low standard and ideal. With all just ac- 
knowledgment of the work already done, with deep 
gratitude for the spirit already aroused, let the heart 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 310 

of the Church be turned to the vast work undone, 
waiting. As Browning's David says : 

"'Tis not what man does that exalts him, 
But what man would do." 

Or, shall we, on the other hand, pause for crimina- 
nation and recrimination, complaint and criticism, 
because of the degree of our shortcoming and the 
width of the chasm that separates our self-indulgence 
from the self-sacrifice of Christ? And what profit 
would there be in that ? No, let us rather turn our 
faces toward the future. We have reviewed our 
Churches' confession of their obligations ; we have 
marked their acknowledgment of these obligations 
in their broad assumption of responsibilities ; and we 
have noted God's equipment of our Church for 
larger service. We have stood this day in the pres- 
ence of the fathers and have breathed their spirit ; 
we have gloried in our traditions, and have blessed 
God for all that he has accomplished through us. 
And now let us forget the things that are behind, 
and reach forth unto the things that are before, to the 
mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus, to the broader and more devoted service of 
humanity, and to the coronation of our King. 

For we are not alone the guardians and trustees 
of the Westminster Standards, which are a statement 
of truth and life ; we are the guardians and trustees 
of the life and truth therein described. And false 



320 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

and reprehensible should we be if in our zeal for 
loyalty to the statement we forgot to be loyal to the 
substance. We shall be poor descendants of the men 
who made up the Westminster Assembly, and shall 
poorly complete their work, if we so concern ourselves 
with the deposit of truth which they sent down to us, 
as to lose sight of that great world's redemption, to 
the principles of whose necessity and method they 
gave formulation. What the world needs is not the 
prescription only, but also and even more, that heal- 
ing stream for which the prescription calls, 

" Which flows from Calvary's fountain." 

And from this point of view, the solemn and vital 
question for us this day is, not what we think of the 
divines of the Westminster Assembly, but what they 
are thinking of us, as associated to-night with Him 
who loved and died for the world, they are regarding 
it with His affection, and viewing all human enter- 
prises as they appear in the light of His cross and His 
throne. The divines of the Westminster Assembly 
served their generation by the will of God, and fell 
on sleep. The supreme inquiry for us is, whether 
we are serving our generation by that same will, and 
are laying such foundations for the future as shall 
make the men of 2148 look back on this Assembly 
as we have been looking back to-day to the men and 
the Assembly of 1648? What sort of men we are 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 321 

and what sort of men our children will be is of 
vastly more consequence to this world than the kind 
of men our ancestors were. There is a story of an 
Austrian nobleman, who, risen from the ranks of the 
common people, was taunted once by a group of 
degenerate princes because of his want of ancestry. 
" Gentlemen," he replied, " you are descendants ; I am 
an ancestor." If I must make my choice, I would 
rather be the ancestor of a new Westminster Assembly 
than the descendant of an old one. I would rather be 
the architect of two hundred and fifty glorious years 
of future history than the product of two hundred 
and fifty years of great history past. 

And I venture diffidently to make appeal to you 
in behalf of the generation that is to follow you. 
This Church is our Church, the Church of our love, 
as it has been your Church — my fathers — and the 
Church of your love. Set her face toward the 
larger future, and the world-wide service, we 
beseech you, as you commit the dear interests of 
her life to us. Make her to see the glory of her 
world-wide destiny. Let her walk out boldly into 
the large liberties. Lead us on where, laying aside 
every weight, and encompassed by the great cloud 
of witnesses, the glorious company of those who, 
from before the days of the Covenants, have wit- 
nessed a good confession, and have entered into their 
glory, we may do bravely the ever-broadening work 

of our Lord. Put our hands for us, before you go to 
21 



322 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 

be yourselves numbered with that great company, to 
the vast tasks of the new day. The night is gone and 
the day is breaking. Standing amid the multitude 
of your sons who are following fast in your steps, I 
can see the long streamers which mark the coming 
of the dawn. Let us go out into it in the spirit of the 
great memories which this day has recalled, to make 
wrong things right, to make dark things light, to 
turn human hate into love, and human strife into 
peace ; to beat the swords into ploughshares ; to tell 
men that Christ is King, and to win them to his 
kingdom; to pour the blessings of his gospel over 
every land, from sea to sea; to whisper his gentle 
grace to every human heart ; to hasten the certain 
coming of the glorious age of Tennyson's vision, 
when, 

"Universal love is each man's law, 
And universal right is each man' s rule, 
And universal peace lie" — 

no more 

"Like a shaft of light across the land, 
And like a lane of beams athwart the sea/ 

but like the all-covering radiance of that city that 
hath no need of any sun, because the Lamb himself 
is the light thereof " thro' all the circle of the golden 
year." 



THE WESTMINSTER STANDARDS AND 

THE FORMATION OF THE 

AMERICAN REPUBLIC. 

BY THE 

Kev. WM. HENRY ROBERTS, D. D., LL. D. 



THE WESTMINSTER STANDARDS AND THE 

FORMATION OF THE AMERICAN 

REPUBLIC. 

BY THE 

Rev. WM. HENRY ROBERTS, D.D., LL.D. 



The predominant influence in the history of man- 
kind has always been that resident in ideas. All 
forms of human organization, religious, social, politi- 
cal, are the outgrowth of the ideas which constitute 
their formative principles. This is true whatever the 
character of the organizations, whether they be 
societies, communities, nations, or churches. The 
State as well as the Church, empires equally with 
republics, tyrannies equally with popular govern- 
ments, are the results of the dominance of ideas in 
the human mind. It is this fact which gives to truth 
its supreme w r orth, and which confers upon all sacri- 
fices made for principle an inestimable value. 

The power resident in ideas finds marked illustra- 
tion in the Protestant Reformation, which began its 
beneficent revolutionary work in the early years of 
the sixteenth century. That Reformation took as 
formative truths the sovereignty of God over human 

325 



326 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

affairs, the sovereignty of the Holy Scriptures as 
God's law over faith and conduct, the direct respon- 
sibility of the individual to God, and the fact that in 
his dealings with men God is no respecter of persons. 
Further, as ideas, these cardinal tenets of the Re- 
formation became political as well as religious forces. 
Truth, when accepted, affects all the interests of men, 
material, mental and political, as well as spiritual. 
Church and State may be kept distinct, as they are 
in this land, but you cannot prevent by such separation 
the moulding influence of religious principles upon 
the human mind and human life. The Protestant 
Reformation became, therefore, an irrepressible and 
aggressive political force, maintaining and securing 
the rights of man to equality before the law, to 
liberty, and to a voice in the government under 
which he lives. 

The ideas which caused and controlled the Re- 
formation found expression two hundred and fifty 
years ago in the Westminster Standards. Doctrinally, 
the system of thought found in them bears the name 
of Calvinism, from its chief theologian, John Calvin of 
Geneva. Politically, the system is the chief source 
of modern republican government. That Calvinism 
and republicanism are related to each other as cause 
and effect is acknowledged by authorities who are 
not Presbyterians. Isaac Taylor calls republicanism 
the Presbyterian principle. Bishop Horsley declares 
that " Calvin was unquestionably in theory a Re- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 327 

publican," and adds that " so wedded was he to this 
notion, that he endeavored to fashion the govern- 
ment of all the Protestant Churches upon republican 
principles." This thought is still further carried 
forward by Bancroft when he speaks of " the politi- 
cal character of Calvinism, which with one consent 
and with instinctive judgment the monarchs of 
that day feared as republicanism." Emilio Castelar, 
the leader of the Spanish liberals, says that " Anglo- 
Saxon democracy is the product of a severe theology, 
learned in the cities of Holland and Switzerland." 
Leopold Von Ranke, the German historian, gives his 
weighty judgment in the words, " John Calvin was 
the virtual founder of America." James Anthony 
Froude, the English historian, bears witness to the 
character of the political progress of the last three 
centuries in the sentence, " nearly all the chief bene- 
factors of the modern world have been Calvinists." 
Lord Macaulay writes that the ministers of the 
Church of Scotland inherited the republican opin- 
ions of Knox, and also states that the Long Parlia- 
ment, which was controlled by Presbyterians, "is 
justly entitled to the reverence and gratitude of all 
in every part of the world who enjoy the blessings 
of constitutional freedom." The Long Parliament 
was the body which gave existence to the West- 
minster Assembly, and Macaulay's testimony there- 
fore points to the intimate connection between Cal- 
viuistic doctrine and constitutional government. 



328 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

These extracts from the writings of men who were 
not themselves Presbyterians, indicate clearly the 
political influence of the doctrinal ideas contained 
in the Westminster Standards. 

The Westminster Standards were the common 
doctrinal standards of all the Calvinists of Great 
Britain and Ireland, the countries which have given 
to the United States its language and to a consid- 
erable degree its laws. The English Calvinists, 
commonly known as Puritans, early found a home 
on American shores, and the Scotch, Dutch, Scotch- 
Irish, French, and German settlers, who were 
of the Protestant faith, were their natural allies. It 
is important to a clear understanding of the influ- 
ence of Westminster in American Colonial history 
to know that the majority of the early settlers of 
this country from Massachusetts to New Jersey in- 
clusive, and also in parts of Maryland, Virginia, and 
the Carolinas, were Calvinists. They brought with 
them to this land those doctrinal ideas which exalt, 
as we have seen, in the human mind, the sovereignty 
of God, which bring all lives and institutions to the 
test of the Holy Scripture, which teach that the 
divine being is no respecter of persons, and which lead 
logically to the conclusion that all men are born free 
and equal. Further, the early British settlers, 
whether Presbyterians or Puritans, were all believers 
in the Westminster Confession. The Congregation- 
alists of New England adopted it for doctrine in 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 329 

1648, one year after its completion at London; the 
Baptists also adopted it in 1677 except as to Baptist 
peculiarities ; the Presbyterians always maintained it 
vigorously for both doctrine and government; and 
the Reformed Dutch were in full sympathy with the 
Presbyterians. To put the situation concisely, about 
the year 1700 the American Colonists were divided 
into two great sections, the one Episcopalians and 
Monarchists, the other Calvinists and believers in 
popular government. From Boston to the Potomac 
Puritan and Presbyterian Calvinists were in the 
ascendant, and from the Potomac southward the 
majority of the people were of opposite tendencies. 
Naturally between these parties conflicts arose, caused 
by their fundamental differences in religion, in 
church government, and in the views which they 
held of the rights of the people. Into a lengthy and 
adequate consideration of these differences and of 
the conflicts which they engendered, the limits of 
time forbid that I should enter. I shall content 
myself with concise statement of several particulars, 
each of which is intimately connected as a funda- 
mental factor with the formation of the American 
Republic. 

One of the initial points of difference between the 
Calvinists and other of the early American settlers 
had to do with popular education. We to-day be- 
lieve that the education of all citizens is funda- 
mental to the welfare of the Republic. This prin- 



330 WESTMLXSTER ASSEMBLY 

ciple, however, it should be understood, is a logical 
result of Calvinistic thought and practice. Calvin- 
ists, taught by the Holy Scriptures, made religion a 
personal matter, not between man and the Church, 
but between the soul and God, and necessitated 
personal knowledge on the part of human beings 
of God's Word as the law of faith and life. Educa- 
tion in religious truth became therefore a cardinal 
principle of the Calvinists, and the steps were easy 
and swift from it to secular and popular education. 
This logical connection between Calvinism and 
education is acknowledged by our historian Bancroft, 
who says that Calvin was the "first founder of the 
public school system." It is also shown by the 
history of popular education. A high authority 
states that Presbyterian Scotland " is entitled to the 
credit of having first established schools for primary 
instruction to be supported at the public expense." 
The Scotch system of free education was founded in 
1567, fifty years before the American Calvinist 
colonies had been established. Presbyterian Hol- 
land followed closely in the footsteps of Scotland, 
and the first settlers in New England and the Middle 
States, being themselves Calvinists, naturally pro- 
ceeded at once, like their European brethren of 
similar faith, to care for the interests of education. 
Harvard, Yale, and Princeton Universities were all 
founded by men who believed in the Westminster 
Confession, and as early as 1647 Massachusetts and 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 331 

Connecticut established public school systems. In 
some other colonies, however, a very different state 
of affairs was to be found. An Episcopal governor 
of Virginia, in 1661, thanked God that there were in 
that region neither " free schools nor printing." 
Steadily year by year, however, the belief in popular 
education, nurtured by our Calvinistic and Puritan 
ancestors, by men who believed in the Westminster 
Confession, and in the canons of the Synod of Dort, 
spread throughout the colonies, and to-day the right 
of all persons to become through instruction intelli- 
gent citizens is everywhere recognized in this great 
republic. Is education one of the foundation-stones 
of the nation? Then honor to whom honor is due, to 
the men of the Westminster Confession, and to those 
who with them believed in the application of Calvin- 
istic principles to secular education. 

Another cardinal principle of the government of 
this American nation is the separation of Church 
and State, with its resulting absolute religious free- 
dom for the individual. This characteristic of the 
organization of the republic is also a logical outcome 
of Calvinistic doctrine. Establishments of religion 
are found in Europe, even in such Presbyterian 
lands as Scotland and Holland, but they are survi- 
vals from a past age, and are not a rightful develop- 
ment from the great Calvinistic principle, " that God 
alone is Lord of the conscience." This was seen 
clearly in the American Colonies first by the Dutch 



332 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

settlers in New York, who were Presbyterians, then 
by the Baptists, who equally with the Presbyterians 
are Calvinists. The English-speaking American 
Presbyterians quickly recognized the full force of the 
principle, and as early as 1729, the General Synod 
of the Presbyterian Church declared that the power 
to persecute persons for their religion was contrary 
to the Word of God, and that the Church should be 
independent of the State. This Scriptural position 
was antagonized, however, at the first by the Congre- 
gationalists in New England, and especially by the 
Episcopalians in all the colonies where they were in 
authority. Gradually, however, the principle of 
untrammeled religious liberty won its way to recog- 
nition in New England, and the acknowledgment of 
it, there and in other parts of the country, was hast- 
ened by the attempts made from 1750 onward to 
establish the Episcopal Church in the colonies. 
United resistance to such attempts was first organized 
in 1766, ten years prior to the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, and in large part by the General Synod 
of the Presbyterian Church. A petition had been 
sent by Episcopalians, in the year just named, from 
a convention held in New York, to the British 
government, for the appointment of bishops for 
America. Presbyterians and Congregationalists, 
Dutch, German, and French Protestants had experi- 
enced the baneful power of established Episcopal 
Churches on the other side of the Atlantic. The 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 333 

bishops whom their ancestors had suffered under 
were arrogant lords, temporal and spiritual, over the 
heritage of God, men of an arbitrary temper and a 
merciless, persecuting spirit. American Calvinists 
could not forget the awful butcheries of the Spanish 
tyrants in the Netherlands, the terrible devastation 
wrought in the valley of the Rhine, the 100,000 
victims of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, or the 
18,000 covenanters who in Scotland, during a few 
brief years, were either massacred by dragoons or 
executed, by the agents of ecclesiastical tyranny. 
The moment, therefore, that religious liberty was 
seriously threatened by the schemes of a Church 
which at that time was ultra-loyal to the British 
crown, and whose ministers with hardly an exception 
were opposed to the cause of the Colonies, American 
Calvinists joined forces and from New England, 
southward through New York, New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania, and the valley of Virginia, to the highlands 
of North and South Carolina, never wavered a hair's- 
breadth from a thoroughgoing devotion to the cause 
of religious liberty. They stood shoulder to shoulder 
in opposition to ecclesiastical tyranny, and their 
courage and high intelligence secured for the re- 
public, that religious freedom, which is now a lead- 
ing characteristic of our national life. 

Having dealt with religious liberty, it is natural 
now to turn to the consideration of the specific rela- 
tion of the American Presbyterian Church, to the civil 



334 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

liberty which was secured by the independence of the 
United States. The opening of the Revolutionary 
struggle found the Presbyterian ministers and 
churches ranged solidly on the side of the colonies. 
In 1775 the General Synod issued a pastoral letter, 
an extract from which indicates the spirit prevailing 
in the Church, and reads, " Be careful to maintain 
the union which at present subsists through all the 
Colonies. In particular, as the Continental Congress, 
now sitting at Philadelphia, consists of delegates 
chosen in the most free and unbiased manner by the 
people, let them not only be treated with respect and 
encouraged in their difficult service, not only let your 
prayers be offered up to God for his direction in their 
proceedings, but adhere firmly to their resolutions, 
and let it be seen that they are able to bring out the 
whole strength of this vast country to carry them 
into execution." Contemporary with this letter of 
the Synod was the famous Mecklenburgh Declaration 
of Independence, renouncing all allegiance to Great 
Britain, passed by a convention in Western North 
Carolina, composed of delegates nearly all Presby- 
terians, and forestalling the action of the Colonial 
Congress in the same line by more than a year. 
Further, in the sessions of the Continental Congress, 
the influence of no delegate exceeded that wielded by 
the Rev. John Witherspoon, president of Princeton 
College, the only clerical signer of the Declaration of 
Independence — " a man Scotch in accent and strength 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 335 

of conviction, but American at heart." Under his 
leadership and that of others the American Presby- 
terian Church never faltered in her devotion to the 
cause of the independence of these United States ; her 
ministers and members periled all for its support, be- 
ing ready, with Witherspoon to go to the block, if 
need be, in defence of civil and religious liberty. So 
resolute and aggressive were they in their opposition 
to the English government that the Colonial cause 
was repeatedly spoken of in Great Britain as the Pres- 
byterian Rebellion. At the close of the war, in 1783, 
the General Synod addressed a letter to its churches, 
congratulating them on the "general and almost uni- 
versal attachment of the Presbyterian body to the 
cause of liberty and the rights of mankind." What 
was true of the Presbyterian was true of the other 
Calvinistic churches of the land, of the Congregational 
and also of the German and Dutch Reformed.* If 
the believers in the Westminster Standards and cog- 
nate creeds had been on the side of George III. in 
1776, the result would have been other than it was. 
But they stood where thoroughgoing Calvinists 
must ever stand, with the people and against tyrants, 
and therefore under the blessing of God the American 
Colonies became free and independent States. Rightly 

* It is estimated that of the 3,000,000 Americans at the time of the 
American Revolution, 900,000 were of Scotch or Scotch-Irish origin ; 
that the German and Dutch Calvinists numbered 400,000, and the 
Puritan English 600,000. 



336 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

then, do we acknowledge the debt of the Republic 
to the men of the Westminster Standards for civil 
liberty. 

We pass now to a fact which in connection with 
the influence of our Church upon the republic is 
quite as important as any yet dealt with, the position 
of the Presbyterian Church for three-quarters of a 
century, as the sole representative upon this conti- 
nent of republican government as now organized 
in this nation. From 1706 to the opening of the 
revolutionary struggle, the only body in existence 
which stood for our present national political organi- 
zation was the General Synod of the American Pres- 
byterian Church. It alone among ecclesiastical and 
political colonial organizations exercised authority, 
derived from the colonists themselves, over bodies of 
Americans scattered through all the colonies from 
Xew England to Georgia. The colonies in the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries, it is to be remem- 
bered, while all dependent upon Great Britain, were 
independent of each other. Such a body as the Con- 
tinental Congress did not exist until 1774. The re- 
ligious condition of the country was similar to the 
political. The Congregational Churches of New Eng- 
land had no connection with each other, and had no 
power apart from the civil government. The Episco- 
pal Church was without organization in the Colonies, 
was dependent for support and a ministry on the 
Established Church of England, and was filled with 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 337 

an intense loyalty to the British monarchy. The Re- 
formed Dutch Church did not become an efficient 
and independent organization until 1771, and the 
German Reformed Church did not attain to that con- 
dition until 1793. The Baptist Churches were sepa- 
rate organizations, the Methodists were practically 
unknown, and the Quakers were non-combatants. 
But in the midst of these disunited ecclesiastical units 
one body of American Christians stood out in marked 
contrast. The General Synod of the Presbyterian 
Church was not dependent for its existence upon 
any European Church, was efficiently organized, and 
had jurisdiction over churches in the majority of the 
colonies. Every year Presbyterian ministers and 
elders from the different colonies, came up to the 
cities of Philadelphia or New York, to consider not 
only the religious interests of their people, but like- 
wise educational and at times political questions. It 
was impossible, at that date, it must be remembered, 
to separate these latter issues from the affairs of the 
Church, for the country was under the English gov- 
ernment, the Episcopal Church was the only Church 
to which that government was favorable, and Chris- 
tians of other beliefs were compelled to act vigorously 
and unitedly in the maintenance of both their religi- 
ous and secular interests. And the Presbyterian 
Church filled with the spirit of liberty, intensely 
loyal to its convictions of truth, and gathering every 
year in its General Synod, became through that bod}^ a 

22 



338 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

bond of union and correspondence between large ele- 
ments in the population of the divided colonies. Is 
it any wonder that under its fostering influence the 
sentiments of true liberty, as well as the tenets of a 
sound gospel, were preached throughout the territory 
from Long Island to South Carolina, and that above 
all a feeling of unity between the Colonies began 
slowly but surely to assert itself. Too much emphasis 
cannot be laid, in connection with the origin of the 
Nation, upon the influence of that ecclesiastical re- 
public, which from 1706 to 1774 was the only repre- 
sentative on this continent of fully developed federal 
republican institutions. The United States of America 
owes much to that oldest of American Republics, the 
Presbyterian Church. 

The influence which the Presbyterian Church ex- 
ercised for the securing of unity between the Colon- 
ies was zealously employed, at the close of the war 
for independence, to bring them into a closer union. 
The main hindrance to the formation of the Federal 
Union, as it now exists, lay in the reluctance of many 
of the States to yield to a general government any of 
the powers which they possessed. The federal party 
in its advocacy of closer union had no more earnest 
and eloquent supporters than John Witherspoon, 
Elias Boudinot, and other Presbyterian members of 
the Continental Congress. Sanderson, in his lives 
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, 
states that " Witherspoon strongly combated the opin- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 339 

ion expressed in Congress that a lasting confederati 3n 
among the States was impracticable, and he warmly 
maintained the absolute necessity of union to impart 
vigor and success to the measures of government." 
In this he was aided by many who had come to the 
views which he, as a Presbyterian, had always main- 
tained. Those who differed with Witherspoon at the 
first came at last to his position. Slowly but surely 
ideas of government, in harmony with those of the 
Westminster Standards, were accepted as formative 
principles for the government of the United States, 
and that by many persons not connected with the 
Presbyterian Church. Among these were the great 
leaders in the Constitutional Convention, James Mad- 
ison, a graduate of Princeton, who sat as a student 
under Witherspoon ; Alexander Hamilton, of Scotch 
parentage, and whose familiarity with Presbyterian 
government is fully attested ; and above all George 
Washington, who though an Episcopalian, had so 
great a regard for the Presbyterian Church and its 
services to the country, that he not only partook of 
holy communion with its members, but gave public 
expression to his high esteem. Indeed, at one time 
so marked was the respect for our Church during 
Revolutionary days, that it was feared by Christians 
of other denominations that it might become in 
America, what it was in Scotland, the Established 
Church, and so widespread was the feeling of alarm, 
that the General Synod felt compelled to pass a de- 



340 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 

liverance setting forth its views in relation to religi- 
ous freedom. Great, however, as was the influence 
of the Presbyterian Church in those trying times, its 
ministers and members were always triie to their own 
principles, and in every possible manner sought to 
maintain and further them in their application to 
the government of the United States, and especially 
in connection with the union of the Colonies whose 
independence had been achieved. Presbyterians both 
in the Old World and the New had been accustomed 
to representative government, to the subordination of 
the parts to the whole, and to the rule of majorities 
for more than two centuries prior to the American 
Revolution. They knew the value of unity to popu- 
lar government, and they labored earnestly and per- 
sistently until their governmental principles were all 
accepted by the American people, and the divided 
Colonies became the United States of America. It is 
not that the claim is made, that either the principles 
of the Calvinistic creed or of the Presbyterian govern- 
ment, were the sole source from which sprang the 
government of this great Republic of which we to- 
day are citizens, but it is asserted that mightiest 
among the forces which made the Colonies a nation 
were the governmental principles found in the West- 
minster Standards, and that the Presbyterian Church 
taught, practiced, and maintained in fulness, first in 
this land that form of government in accordance with 
which the Republic has been organized. Our own 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 341 

historian Bancroft says, " the Revolution of 1776, so 
far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian 
measure. It was the natural outgrowth of the prin- 
ciples which the Presbyterianism of the Old World 
planted in her sons, the English Puritans, the Scotch 
Covenanters, the French Huguenots, the Dutch Cal- 
vinists, and the Presbyterians of Ulster." What the 
historian states as true of the war for independence is 
true of the organized government of the Republic. 
The elements of popular government were, without 
question, found in many of the Colonies, especially 
in New England, but the federal principle, whose 
acknowledgment resulted in the American nation, 
through the adoption of the Constitution of 1788, was 
found previous to that year in full operation upon 
this Continent, only in the American Presbyterian 
Church, and had in it its most practical and success- 
ful advocate. Chief among the blessings which Pres- 
byterians aided in bestowing upon this country was 
and is the Federal Union. 

Brethren of the historic judicatory which is the 
successor of the Presbyterian General Synod, Pres- 
byterian fellow-citizens of the United States, such 
is the relation of the Westminster Standards to our 
national life, such is the answer which as Presbyte- 
rians we give to the question, what have the princi- 
ples of these Standards done for the Republic ? To- 
day, as we look over our broad national domain, as 
we see the 70,000,000 of our inhabitants in the enjoy- 



342 WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 

ment of education, of religious freedom, of civil lib- 
erty, of the blessings which the Federal Union has 
secured to the nation, we can say, this hath Westmin- 
ster, hath Calvinism wrought! This, too, is our 
answer to the assertion made by some ill-informed 
persons, in whose minds prejudice has usurped the 
throne of sound reason, the assertion that Calvinism is 
dead ! Dead ! Calvinism dead ! The fundamental prin- 
ciples of Westminster are maintained to-day in this 
land not only by the Presbyterian and the Reformed 
Churches, but also by Baptists, Congregationalists, 
and many Episcopalians. The majority of American 
Protestants are Calvinists. Calvinism dead ! It will 
cease to be both life and power only, when popular edu- 
cation shall give place to popular ignorance, when civil 
and religious liberty shall vanish, when the Republic 
shall be shattered into separate and warring nationali- 
ties, and when the very life shall have perished from 
government of the people, by the people, and for the 
people. But never shall such changes be. ! America, 
America ! The sovereign hand of the Almighty 
rocked thy cradle, the eternal purpose sustained and 
nurtured thy founders, and we believe that the un- 
changeable divine decree hath ordained thee to be an 
indestructible union of indestructible States, the 
leader of the hopes of mankind, the majority of thy 
citizens servants of God and lovers of humanity, until 
the hour when God shall in truth dwell with men, 
and all mankind shall be his people. 






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